Chapter 45, CHAOS IN THE STREETS
Ikkaku smiled as he walked down the alleyway. Today was going to be a wonderful day; he could feel it. Well, he could do more than feel it. He had watched the invaders crash not too far away, and thus, he knew he was going to have a good fight no matter what was going on.
Oh sure, he probably should not be taking this as lightly as he was, but someone had invaded the Soul Society, and the Eleventh Division was here for that. Years, decades, centuries of training, and the Eleventh Division finally got to show its worth as a fighting unit.
Granted, the Eleventh Division gets to show that all the time, but it's not often that the Central Districts get invaded, so this one's a little bit special.
With a hop in his step, he led the way, just him and Yumichika, as they made their way down the alleyways which were a confusing mess of passageways designed exactly for this sort of situation. At least, that's what he had heard over the years.
Frankly, it would probably be faster to jump up onto the roofs or the walls separating the pathways and move about, but by that same token, anyone who did that was easily spotted, so they could be dealt with from a distance.
"Are you sure they landed around here?" Yumichika asked as they passed another passageway that would have taken them further in the wrong direction, in Ikkaku's opinion.
"Oh yeah, this is the way," he said with a smile as they turned a corner and saw exactly what he was hoping to see—a crater indicating someone had crashed down into the Earth. And the fools who crashed hadn't run away yet.
He took stock of the situation. There was an orange-haired kid with Reaper robes arguing with some street rat from the outer districts, probably the one responsible for finding the way in. And there was a girl in Reaper robes who looked annoyed by the two arguing. Her eyes caught sight of the pair of them approaching rather quickly, and she grabbed their shoulders and pointed at Ikkaku and Yumichika.
"What a great day," Ikkaku said with cheer in his voice as he started to do his lucky lucky dance. "A chance to finally fight some people appears before me. Come on, get out of that hole. I don't have all day. I have to beat you up and take you in. Orders are orders. You need to be captured. Though that's an apology on my front. I'm sure you are quite good warriors, and you would prefer an honorable death. Division command wants you alive."
The three still in the hole, which was filled with sand, were looking at him like he was a madman and not bothering to get out, which killed the mood of the lucky dance rather quickly.
"Hey, are you three idiots going to get out of there or what!? We don't have all day!" Ikkaku shouted.
"Yes," Yumichika added. "The others will be here soon, and then you'll be outnumbered. There won't even be a chance for a fight. You'll just have to surrender."
"Not happening," the orange-haired kid said, grabbing the edge of the pit and pulling himself out, drawing a rather oversized sword. It looked more like a kitchen knife.
"Hey, don't just challenge the crazy lunatics to a fight without knowing who they are," the street rat said. Besides the insult of calling him a lunatic, Ikkaku didn't mind. After all, a proper introduction was in order.
"Why, thank you for the opening," Ikkaku said, holding his sword in front of him. "I'm the third seat of the Eleventh Division, Ikkaku Madarame. This is the fifth seat of the Eleventh Division, Yumichika Ayasegawa."
"Do us the favor of not surrendering and actually drawing your blades, please. We're looking forward to this," Ikkaku said with a smile.
"Hmmm, I could do that... or..." The street rat was rather fast. In a blink of an eye, he pulled himself out of the sand pit and was already halfway down the alleyway, running at full speed, leaving the two Soul Reapers in front of him.
"That coward," Yumichika said, looking towards the other two. "Do you think you can handle two of them?"
Ikkaku simply smiled wider, saying, "Two on one? Oh, that sounds like a fun time. Go on, go get that runner, bring them back, and mostly in one piece."
Yumichika nodded and hopped over the hole, running at a rather good speed after the street rat, leaving Ikkaku with the other two.
"Alright, now that's one of you. Is the other one also going to run and make this even more annoying? Would you mind fighting me already? I've been standing here waiting for this for way too long already."
"Fine," the orange-haired kid said, positioning his sword in front of him in a ready stance.
The black-haired girl seemed unsure of herself as she pulled herself out of the pit and did the same, standing somewhat behind the orange-haired kid and drawing her own sword, though not as fancy or large as the big one.
"So, you two love birds, going to give me your names or what?" Ikkaku asked with a smile, preparing his sword as he drew it from its scabbard, keeping the scabbard in his free hand so he could use it defensively.
"We are not love birds," the girl said, sounding very annoyed. She prepared a rather sloppy defense. Ikkaku could tell it wasn't terrible, but it was obvious that she was new to using a blade. As a combat threat, she was low on the list. Maybe he'd give her a chance to surrender after he beat the orange-haired kid, whose defensive stance was a little more effective. The kid appeared to have some experience with the blade, at least.
"Ichigo Kurosaki," the orange-haired kid said, leaving only the black-haired girl unnamed, and, well, the street rat, but that name was not going to be apparent anytime soon.
"Tatsuki Arisawa," the girl said, seeming to be trying to gather her strength as she watched Ikkaku's movements.
"Hmm, Ichigo, that's a good name. Really has some strength and fight to it. Not to mention, they say guys with 'ichi' in their name are lucky."
"Well, any chance that you'll not want to find us and let us be on our way?"
"Nope."
"Any comment on my name?" the black-haired girl asked.
Ikkaku shrugged before saying, "Not particularly. In fact, I don't think I'll be fighting you much. Just stay over there and don't get involved, or you'll get hurt, kid. I can tell you're not a real fighter."
"You asshole!" the black-eyed girl said before doing something Ikkaku did not expect her to do—charging at him with her sword, wielding it with one hand as she brought it down from his left.
He easily blocked the blade and was already smiling at the apparent ease he was going to have dealing with her, until her fist hit him in the nose.
Ikkaku staggered back from that, a bit shocked, but he noticed something with that attack. Although she was unsure of herself when it came to the blade, that fist had been dead center and right on. She had training in some form of martial arts and hand-to-hand combat, not with blade combat.
Her threat level had gone up from not really to a level where he had to keep an eye on her, or he might be overwhelmed at the wrong moment. After all, just because he was a third seat didn't mean he had good odds when it was two on one. This just meant it was fun odds, and he had to be more creative.
"Nice sucker punch," he said. "Won't happen again." With that, he kicked her in the gut, sending her flying and crashing into a wall. She definitely needed to learn how to create more room after an attack, he thought, as the orange-haired one came charging at him, swiping his blade from the right.
He dodged back and brought up his own blade, blocking the attack before using the kid's momentum against him to force his blade back. Both had extreme ranges, and they swiped at each other, their blades just barely grazing each other. The kid's blade made a similar cut on his skull.
Ikkaku jumped back as the kid did the same, showing that he did have some understanding of how these combats worked—going for an attack and then backing up. He was about to praise him for that before the girl appeared again. Apparently, she had been sneaking around the side of the main combat. Ikkaku just barely caught her blade with his offhand scabbard. He swiped at her, but she had apparently learned from watching, jumping back and out of range.
Letting out a laugh, he said, "Well, now this is fun. This is a very fun day. On one side, I have an opponent who thinks he has a lot of power and some training to actually go into a fight with, and on the other, I have an opponent who apparently doesn't have much training but is quickly learning and picking it up. This is a very good day."
Smiling, he looked at the two as he backed up to a maximum distance. The orange-haired one was bleeding profusely from his flesh wound, blood getting in his eyes, and he was trying and struggling to see through the mess. The black-haired one was moving in between himself and the orange-haired one, trying to fill in for his missing eye, Ikkaku assumed.
This gave him an opportunity, which he took. Flipping the scabbard, he popped off the end and grabbed a bit of ointment from it, quickly covering up his own wound as he said, "Not very smart to take your hand off your blade, kid. If your girl here wasn't so funny to see, I'd probably be jumping in to give you a few more slashes."
"Hey, that's cheating!" the orange-haired one said as Ikkaku covered up his wounds.
"Not cheating, just being prepared, something you obviously are not good at," Ikkaku retorted.
"Ichigo, spit in your hand and cover the wound with his saliva. It's not going to be as good as that, but it'll do something," the black-haired girl said, which caused Ikkaku to raise an eyebrow.
"Well, well, not bad. You probably deserve to be in the support team with rudimentary knowledge like that," Ikkaku commented. Ichigo followed her instructions, quickly spitting in his hand and rubbing it over the wound, not sparing any around his eye.
"Out of curiosity, who trained you kids?" Ikkaku said with a smile. "You obviously got some training, so it must be someone as your master. So, who did it? Who was the idiot who put you on this suicide charge?"
The pair shared a look before saying, "Kisuke Urahara."
Ikkaku blinked twice before saying, "Really? That guy is still around, huh..." There were many reactions he could have had, but the news that a rogue Captain was still alive and kicking was rather surprising. He had heard about Urahara once or twice from some of the older members of the Eleventh Division. Apparently, he was a very skilled Captain who had gone rogue and turned criminal. The exact details of his actions were kind of lost to history by the time Ikkaku had joined the Eleventh Division, but the older Soul Reapers had always spoken of him with enough reverence to know he was most likely a very skilled warrior.
Which meant he couldn't really play along with these two much more. Using his sword might be more fun, but he needed to go all-in on the combat if he was going to win, because who knows what Urahara had taught these two.
"Well then, to show my respect to your teacher, I'm going to have to go all out," Ikkaku declared. He unleashed the Shikai of his blade, transforming it into what appeared to be a spear to those two, though they would soon realize that it was more than just a spear.
Charging forward, he started to quickly stab at the pair, forcing the girl back until she was next to the orange-haired one, and they both tried to avoid getting stabbed over the longer distance.
"I know how to fight with a spear in combat," the orange-haired one said, seeming to gather himself for an attack against Ikkaku's weapon.
"Who said this was a spear?" Ikkaku replied, twisting and releasing his weapon into three segments, allowing the blade to move freely. He came around behind Ichigo, trying to strike at his head from another direction.
However, Ikkaku was in for a surprise as Ichigo was able to bring up his arm and block the attack. It shouldn't have been a big deal, really. It should have damaged their arms and made it harder for them to fight back. Instead, a small little shield had formed on their wrists, taking the attack.
Ikkaku blinked, recognizing one of Tanya's spells.
He jumped back, withdrawing his weapon as he considered his next move.
"Where'd you learn that, kid?" he asked, buying himself some time as he spun his Zanpakuto a little faster, preparing to try and strike the kid.
"A Soul Reaper I fought in the World of the Living," the kid said after a moment, seeming to have thought of the best way to respond.
"Oh, so you just observed a Soul Reaper use some sort of trick and learned it," Ikkaku questioned, not believing that one bit.
"It is what I had to do to survive," Ichigo said, though there was something in the way he said it that made Ikkaku not doubt the kid.
"So you never met Tanya then while you were in the World of the Living. It's just a coincidence that you're using one of her signature spells, or did you learn it and somehow figured it out immediately, even though it's not something most Soul Reapers even know?" Ikkaku continued, skeptical.
The look on their faces was rather hilarious, as if they had been caught with their pants down. Ikkaku couldn't help but laugh before saying, "Oh yes, I have to thank her for providing two good opponents then. No, I think you are probably failing students by the end of this."
"What the hell are you people even doing here? What are you thinking, coming to the Soul Society on this suicide quest?" Ikkaku asked, bewildered.
"We're here to save Rukia," the girl said, which raised an eyebrow from Ikkaku.
"Ah, so you're here to try and prevent the execution of that criminal. Well, good luck on that. I don't think you'll make it past me. Once this fight's over, you're probably going straight to the Fourth Division's hospital before heading to jail. And then, I guess Central 46 might send you to the same execution spot on the same day."
Ikkaku shook his head before adding, "A real shame, though. I think you do have some potential, both of you. Squandered potential, but potential nonetheless." Pointing his spear at them, he said, "But I'll do you an honor since you're going to lose either way. I'll try and put you down fully so you don't have to go through the dishonor of being executed like your friend."
"Not going to happen," the orange-haired one said as he charged in. Before they could continue, Ikkaku smashed his head into the kid's, overpowering their blade and causing him to back up.
"Brave words, kid, but I don't think you really understand the situation. You're not winning this," Ikkaku said, smashing his head into the kid's, causing him to back up.
Whipping around, Ikkaku sent the blunt end of his spear hurtling at the kid, smacking into him and causing him to go tumbling down.
The girl came charging at that point, bringing her blade up in an attack that he was able to catch between two sections of his spear, firmly locking her in place. He pulled her to the side and slashed with his still loose spear, cutting her back open across the left shoulder. "Too slow, kids!" he called out triumphantly.
A scream of pain echoed, which was not enjoyable to say the least. He was about to move in to finish her off when he realized he might have made a mistake. Spiritual pressure behind them was moving rather quickly in his direction, and he turned just in time to see the kid moving at incredible speed right at him. He brought up his weapons to block the attack, only for the blade to move too fast for him to catch between the two sections, cutting right through the chain and down the side of his chest.
He stood there, shocked, looking down at the rather gaping wound running down the left side of his chest before saying, "Well, that was unexpected." He couldn't move his left arm; the piece of the spear was still in his hand, but he couldn't do anything with it. He still had the top two sections, including the spearhead, in his right arm. Dropping the spearhead and catching the middle section, he started to swing it, looking at the kids and saying, "Well, maybe you've got a chance at this after all. Come on, then."
"You're bleeding out," the kids said, looking at him as if he was an idiot or insane.
"It's only a flesh wound," Ikkaku chuckled.
"Hold on, did you just reference Monty Python and the Holy Grail?" came a pained moan from behind him, most likely the girl.
"It's a good movie. Tanya showed it to me once," Ikkaku said, taking another step towards Ichigo, still spinning the blade.
Kurosaki looked at him before seeming to have a realization, saying, "I get it."
"Get what?" moaned the girl.
"The only way to get them to talk about where Rukia is, is to defeat him fully so they can't fight back. That way, he won't get in trouble with his superiors. It's the same sort of thing Tanya would do. That's what he's hinting at," Ichigo explained.
Ikkaku blinked, unsure how to take that. For one, no, that was not what he was doing. He was literally ready to fight the kid to the end. For another, well, he guessed he would actually tell the kids something if he did manage to defeat him, but he would rather fight to the end, for goodness' sake! But hey, if the kid was willing to come at him with full power and needed some excuse to be able to do it, he wasn't going to argue, so he charged at the kid.
Spinning his blade as fast as he could, he was ready to try and lock up their swords and block the kid from escaping.
Unfortunately, the kid was a lot faster than a moment ago. He blocked the attack with his sword, using one of Tanya's shield spells to cause his blade to deflect into the nearby wall, and then sliced up the bottom of Ikkaku's arm, causing him to lose his grip on the weapon.
Finishing it off with a smash to the face with the pommel of his blade, Ikkaku lost consciousness, falling backwards or forwards, he did not know. All he knew was that sometime later, he woke up with the kids tending to their wounds, and he was still alive. Blinking, he just had to look down at his chest to see that they had used the ointment to seal his wounds.
"God dammit," Ikkaku said, smashing his fist into the ground in frustration, before saying, "You couldn't let me die, could you?"
"I told you I wasn't going to let you die. I also told you we needed information, and I think we made it clear that if we defeated you, you were going to give us that information," the orange-haired kid said, which got a chuckle from Ikkaku.
"Yes, you asserted those things. I never agreed to them," Ikkaku said, laughing, and then finally said, "No, I do have to ask, how many of you are there? It's gotta be like, what, 10, 20? A suicide mission like this requires at least 30, I would assume, the amount of reapers in the Central District."
Orange-haired looked to black-haired before shrugging and saying, "Eight humans and a cat."
"Eight humans and a cat? You people are insane," Ikkaku said in a way that did not imply he thought they were idiots. The smile he had seemed more like he enjoyed their moxie to even attempt this.
"Alright, kids, listen well, listen closely. I'm probably only going to be conscious for another 10 minutes before I pass out again, so I'm not going to be repeating this, and you did not hear this from me," Ikkaku warned.
The pair of Soul Reapers nodded their heads in agreement.
"See that big white tower over there, the one in the center of the entire Central District? That's where you're going. She's somewhere in that tower, probably at the top cell, so she can overlook the execution grounds and repent for her sins," Ikkaku explained.
"You're going to have to fight every division to get there, and I don't know if you can pull that off. But hey, you just defeated the third seat of the Eleventh Division, the combat division, so maybe you've got a chance. It'll be interesting to see if you pull off anything better. Actually, now that I think about it, it would be embarrassing for the whole division if any other division managed to knock you down before you got there," Ikkaku continued.
"We'll get there," the girl said, standing up and brushing herself off. "We still have a lot of ground to cover, but we'll get there."
Ikkaku chuckled before saying, "Good luck. If I were you, I'd try and gather up as many of your friends as possible before making the final assault. They'll figure out what you're after soon enough and put everything they have between you and your goal."
"Thanks for the warning," the orange-haired kid said, getting up and nodding to him.
"One more thing, kid," Ikkaku said as the two were about ready to leave. "Who's the most powerful in your party?"
The two of them looked at each other before shrugging. Black-haired pointed her thumb at orange-haired, saying, "He's been doing this the longest in the party, so I guess he would be the most powerful."
"Okay," Ikkaku chuckled at that, "Well, be on the lookout. The captain of the Eleventh Division is going to be looking for you. He's going to be looking for the strongest to fight him, which means you're on his fight list."
Ichigo nodded his head in understanding. "We'll keep an eye out for him. What's his name?"
"Kenpachi Zaraki, and you'd better be more than ready for him. He will find you, and he will fight you. You've gotta be ready for that, or you're gonna end up dead," Ikkaku warned.
"Noted," the kids said as a firework exploded in the distance.
"Huh, guess where Ganju Shiba ran off to?" black-hair said.
"Maybe he defeated the other guy," orange-hair replied.
"Doubtful. More likely he's asking for help," Ikkaku said, getting the two to look at him.
"If you don't want me to give a comment, start walking," Ikkaku added.
The pair looked at each other before nodding and starting to walk away.
"Good luck, kids!" he called after them before closing his eyes, trying to recover some strength.
"Well, that landing could have gone better," Matheus said as he looked around. He knew that the ball of energy would explode when they broke through the sphere protecting the central districts. You couldn't force something that was under pressure through pressurized force without something going boom—it was that simple.
He had tried to warn everyone to keep their hands on each other so that they wouldn't be scattered, but things hadn't gone as planned.
He had seen the Soul Reapers grab his adopted nephew, which was good. For some reason, he thought his nephew would do better with them, a better chance of surviving—at least he hoped.
And he had seen one of the Quincy get thrown back into the hands of the girl with strange powers, thanks to the big guy.
He had been separated from the group in doing so, but he was one of those types who looked like they could survive on their own.
The problem, of course, was the berserker, or how unlike the berserker she acted.
She had also been blown clear and further away from her cousin, and Chad had gone in the other direction. Instead of trying to form one massive group, he had done the dumb thing and jumped out to grab her so that she wouldn't get blown away on her own.
Why did he do this? He was still trying to figure that out. Oh yeah, that idea. Why was she not acting like the berserker? The berserker would not have been panicking about falling to their death; they would have been flying. Even with the confirmation that they knew they were that person who screwed over the 203 and killed Tanya, the fact that the girl was acting like she was going to die probably stirred fatherhood protections in him. It had been a good 10 years or so since he had been in combat—perhaps he had gone soft.
Well, whatever happened, the result was that the group was now spread all across the southern parts of the central districts. He believed there were five groups, but he couldn't be sure. They could have scattered once they hit the ground. They could be dead if they didn't know how to land. The girl sure didn't seem to know what she was doing. If she hadn't managed to activate a flight spell at the last moment, they would have smashed against the concrete. At the moment, the girl was puking against the wall.
He shook his head, wondering what had happened to the berserker who had nearly killed the 203 on multiple occasions.
Letting out a sigh, he pulled out a rudimentary walkie-talkie device he had been working on for years. He tapped it a couple of times, asking, "Ganju Shiba, can you hear me?"
There was a pause of silence before he heard the voice of Ganju as he was running. "Yeah, yeah, I can hear you. A little bit busy right now. Got a Soul Reaper on my ass."
"Good that you can hear me. Can you keep your distance from the guy chasing you?"
"Oh yeah, as long as he keeps just running, we've got this all settled. Oh God, there's another pit."
The radio went silent for a moment before Ganju came back. "I think we landed in a very militarized section of the central districts. Keep running into execution pits."
"You'd think they'd cover those up when they weren't in use," Matheus mused before saying, "What about the others? Where are they?"
"Orange hair and the girl are fighting another guy. He seemed tough, but I think they can handle him. Frankly, I didn't want to chance the two professional Soul Reapers working together to take on the three of us all at once. Knowing how each other fights, splitting them up would be good," he explained.
"That makes some sense," Matheus replied. "Good work, kid," he said before turning towards the maybe-berserker. "Did you happen to see where the others fell when you came down?"
"I'm afraid not, Matheus. I was just barely able to catch myself when we landed. Though, I think I saw a firework signal. Gathering us all together would expose our location to the enemy, though," Akita responded.
"Don't use the fireworks to try and gather us together," he said, resuming his conversation with Ganju. "I have the female Quincy with me. Hopefully, she's got some sort of ability to contact the male Quincy. That'll put us in contact with at least three of the five groups. That should be enough to find the other two, or they'll find their way to us during the combat. Look out for yourself, Ganju,'" Matheus instructed.
"Will do, brother. Talk to you later," Ganju replied.
Sighing, Matheus stood up, brushing off the makeshift uniform he had thrown together for this operation. Some might ask why he had wanted to come on this mission. It was simple. He was worried about Tanya, but also, he couldn't trust the berserker around her, not alone. Yes, she claimed that they were friends, but she also claimed they hadn't known each other's true identities before this day. That was concerning, and maybe he was putting his life at risk without much thought. But he believed he could pull this off. After all, he was a trained mage. Sure, he hadn't been training this entire time like many of the other mages, but he had been pulling a few tricks together over the years, thinking outside the box.
Turning to the girl, he said, "Alright, stop puking and get yourself up."
The girl blinked but didn't release anything from her stomach, either she had already cleared or she hadn't eaten anything before the mission. Matheus hadn't been paying attention to whether they had breakfast or not.
Carefully, she pulled out a handkerchief from her white dress and brushed off her face. She looked at it before throwing it onto the ground, sighing before saying, "Sorry about that. Ever since we landed, I've been feeling queasy."
Matheus raised an eyebrow before saying, "Perhaps you pumped a little bit too much spiritual energy into the orb. A bunch of kids were doing that stupid thing. I know Ganju needed enough power to break the barrier, but it might have been a little bit too much."
"Maybe that's it," she said with a shake of her head before asking, "So, what's the plan?"
Looking at her, he shrugged before saying, "The plan? Well, that's simple. We need to gather up everyone and try to figure out where Rukia would be held. Any ideas on how to do that?"
The girl sighed for a moment and thought, putting her hand on the wall and closing her eyes, seeming to be deep in some sort of meditation. After a while, she said, "I can sense Chad. He's not too far away from here."
"Good. He's one of the ones we don't know where he is. If you want, lead the way," Matheus replied.
She nodded and started walking as Matheus checked over the rudimentary rifle he was carrying. It was home-built from scratch, probably never going to be as good as what the Imperial Army could make. It wasn't even a bolt-action; he had to come up with a lever-action thing. But with a little bit of magic here and there, a nice little .44 explodes like an artillery shell. And if Little Miss Berserker goes rogue, hopefully, he'd be able to put a bullet between her eyes or in the back of her head before she did anything too dangerous.
Ishida looked over the side of the building as a giant of a man with spiky hair and a little girl with pink hair riding on his shoulder ran by. He did not look like someone Uryū wanted to tangle with. So he kept his mouth quiet and hoped that they could avoid contact.
There was a brief moment where the giant looked in their direction, but he was quickly distracted by a firework going off and ran off in the direction it came from. Both him and Orihime let out a sigh of relief as he left, rolling back from the edge of the building.
"Well, that was too close for comfort," Uryū said, shaking his head and brushing himself off as he got up.
"Yeah, that guy looked scary," Orihime said with a nod before adding, "Why was he wearing a white coat?"
Uryū shrugged before saying, "Maybe he's a commanding officer. We haven't really run into any of their commanding officers yet, so it's possible that they use something to differentiate themselves."
"That makes sense," she said with a nod before she turned to look at the fireworks. "So, do you think that's our friends, and should we head that way?"
Blinking, Uryū looked towards where the fireworks were going on. "I believe so. My best guess is that it's Ichigo. He has the equipment to do that, so maybe it's some way of signaling us which way to go. Though it seems like a bad idea to also signal every other Reaper in the area where we are."
She nodded before saying, "True, but if we're all together, I think we can take a lot of them in a fight."
"Probably, but we should definitely be careful. Who knows who else is out there. We've already run into one asshole coward of a Reaper," Uryū replied.
They had encountered someone big, carrying a sword and going out of their way to target Orihime. The person talked a big game, claiming to be a fourth seat of the Seventh Division, but obviously they were not only an asshole but also a coward. They had gone after Orihime, someone less combat-oriented, instead of Uryū. They weren't there to fight the best fighter; they were there to get a quick win and leave.
And now they would never do that again. Their skill was subpar, to say the least, and Uryū had easily defeated them. He had given them a chance to walk away intact, but they refused. So he had destroyed the organ that the Reaper had attempted to destroy on Ichigo, resulting in the coward being depowered.
"I'm sure not all the Reapers are like that last one we met," Orihime said with a shake of her head.
"Assuming anything but these guys being bastards seems like a bad idea," Uryū said with a shake of his head before adding, "Besides, what matters now is that we need to locate the others."
Looking off towards the west, he said, "As much as I don't like the idea of gathering us all up in one location where the enemy can track us down, perhaps we can get ourselves better organized if we do."
"Right! We need to make sure your cousin is alright. She was with Matheus, so hopefully, they landed fine. After all, he was a former Imperial Air Mage or whatever that means."
Uryū gave her an annoyed look because, while it was true they probably landed fine, it also meant his cousin was with someone who technically hated her for things she apparently did in her last life.
Still trying to come to grips with the whole situation, he had never once in his mind come up with the idea that his cousin was a reincarnation of some soldier from another world, let alone that she would remember that life quite vividly enough to openly talk about it when called out on it.
When he had the chance, he really needed to have a conversation with her about all that. Granted, he could understand why she probably never brought it up. Talking about something like that would probably get you sent to the crazy house. But still, he needed to learn more about what had happened, why it happened, and more importantly, would it be a problem?
After all, how do you deal with someone who has had another lifetime of experience? And what trauma was there from that life and death?
He also wondered why she remembered. From what he understood, you're not supposed to remember your past lives once you go through a normal reincarnation. So why did she remember? What was different about her?
Was it because she was from another world, or was there something else going on? After all, every other world he'd run into so far had been realms of the dead, their souls sent here where they had existed. They had not died and been reincarnated.
So why was his cousin different? It was intriguing, and he should investigate it more when he got the chance.
Filing that away for later, he turned to Orihime and said, "Alright, well, we've had our break. Let's start moving towards that firework."
She nodded in agreement, and the two of them started moving.
"Hey, there's an invader! Get him!" one of the many reapers running around exclaimed as Chad moved through one of the back streets.
He had hoped to avoid any conflict. He had seen the firework go up and was making his way in that general direction, assuming he would run into friends there. But, well, everyone else was moving in that direction, so it was inevitable that he would encounter some local authorities, in this case, some reapers.
They were getting in his way, so he did the best thing he could do: smash his way through.
As he moved down one alleyway, a reaper came rushing out with his sword ready to try and cut Chad in half. Chad was able to block the attack with his arm, grabbing the sword and ripping it from the reaper's hand. He then channeled energy into his arm and delivered a powerful punch, sending the reaper flying through three others who came rushing around the corner.
All four reapers were left on the ground, broken and bruised, as a fifth reaper approached.
The fifth reaper, carrying what looked like a set of oversized garden shears, looked down at his fallen comrades, then up at Chad. He shook his fist, saying, "The Eleventh will remember this!" before running off.
Chad simply shrugged. He didn't care if they remembered it. He cared that he needed to keep going. He still had several blocks to go, he estimated. So he turned towards the wall and smashed through it, stepping into what appeared to be some sort of garden belonging to a mansion. Perhaps this was one of the higher-up districts where the rich and famous lived. He didn't know.
Suddenly, a woman started screaming from a nearby building and began throwing teacups at him. However, her arm strength was non-existent, and the teacups landed short. Chad simply ignored her and kept moving, walking across the backyard before smashing through the next wall into another backyard. This was going to take a while.
He dashed through four backyards in total, of which he only ran into that original woman who ended up screaming her head off. All the others appeared to be empty. One of them actually looked abandoned, with overgrown grass and poorly maintained trees.
"This could definitely use some good yard work," he thought as he smashed through the final wall into another alleyway, right into the midst of a group of reapers who were looking around, confused. Well, they were looking around confused until the smashing happened. Then, two of them were pinned against the wall by the rubble, and three others drew their blades, looking at Chad in terror.
"Dotoya, run! Go get the sixth seat. We need her help," one of them said, and another reaper quickly ran off, sheathing his sword as he did so.
Chad turned to the remaining reapers and said, "If you run away, I will not hurt you."
"Hah! You'd like that, invader. You'd like the Eleventh to betray its code of honor and run. Well, that's not happening. We're here to fight, so fight us, you outsider! We will not allow you to have your way with the central districts like the barbarian you are."
"That's a bit much," Chad said with a shrug before raising his fists, charging up, and smacking the first reaper that came at him, sending him bouncing down the street. The second and last remaining standing reaper looked at his comrade, then at Chad, and put his sword away, saying, "You know what? I quit. I'm going to the Fourth Division." He turned and walked away, causing Chad to simply shrug and say, "Well, that was easy." He then looked in the direction where the firework had gone off, estimated how many more blocks he had to go, and smashed through the wall in front of him.
Unfortunately, this time the wall he passed through led into a courtyard full of reapers. They looked at him, he looked at them, they drew their blades, and he readied his fist. They charged, and he sent a good portion of them flying with one hit. He then stepped in and smacked another one over the head with his regular arm.
Using overwhelming force, he prevented them from getting a chance to stab him. He kept punching, sending reapers flying as he moved. By the time he crossed the courtyard, 20 reapers were lying all over the place, unconscious or in states of pain and suffering.
He shrugged before smashing his fist into the wall, cracking it and opening up into the next alleyway, which was empty. Finally, perhaps he would have a little bit of time to recover as he made his way to Ichigo.
Or maybe not, he thought, as another group of reapers came around the corner, from the Eleventh Division, one of them charging ahead without a care in the world.
"What the hell are they doing?" Tanya asked, looking at the map that her underlings had unfolded on the table.
It became apparent that they would probably be trying to invade rather quickly, at least to Tanya. How they were pulling this off was another question altogether. They should not be able to enter the city, but they had, at least from the reports she had been able to piece together. Perhaps it was just wishful thinking, an assumption that those people who tried to attack the day before had somehow found a way through. But the few scattered reports that had made their way to her coffee shop indicated that no, this was Ichigo and his crew, a crew of about 20 individuals in total, according to some estimates.
There was chaos out in the streets, so getting reliable reports was problematic, to say the least. The most she had been able to get was from people stopping in her shop to get coffee before they ran the rest of the way to the central district to talk to the First Division. That was how she was able to gather as much information as she had.
And that information was useful, to say the least. An unknown number of enemies had broken through the barrier and landed in the Eleventh District's backyard, launching an assault on them. The infiltrators were still scattered, of course, but the third and fifth seats had supposedly gone into combat. No one had seen this combat, but it had been reported thanks to their spiritual pressure being detected by those in the area. What had happened was unknown, and Tanya assumed victory for the third and fifth seats. Ichigo was tough, but he wasn't that tough.
Besides that, one of the main secondary barracks had been raided by an unknown group of individuals. The survivors were claiming it was a giant of a man with unnatural powers. Another report stated that the fourth seat of the Seventh Division was slain or severely injured in the territory of the Eleventh, which was odd. If the enemy was in the Eleventh district, there should be no one else there, so everyone was assuming he had been trying to do something sneaky.
The fourth seat of the Seventh Division was not well known to Tanya, but a person who stopped by her coffee shop shed some light on the situation. They claimed that the fourth seat was an opportunist and was only there because he picked on everyone weaker than him. This was interesting, as it made Tanya wonder how the hell the Seventh Division ran things, but it wasn't important.
All in all, the southern sections of the city under the Eleventh Division's control were in chaos, and according to some reports, 50% of the division had already become casualties, which was terrifying, to say the least.
The Eleventh Division was supposed to be the combat division, and they were doing badly against 20 individuals. There must be a lot of ambushes going on, she would assume. But who were all these people that Ichigo had hooked up with? Perhaps enemies of the Soul Society? That could explain it, but it wouldn't help the situation when it came to Rukia's case. You can't exactly prove the loyalty of an individual when they are actively working with enemies of the Soul Society. That's kind of the opposite of what Rukia needed at this moment.
Oh, that's the kind of thing that could speed up the execution.
Sighing, Tanya looked at the map before shaking her head. At least the situation was contained to the South, and hopefully, they could figure out where they were going. There was a report of a firework near the border of the Fourth Division. Perhaps they would jump over into that territory. It would do them well, but how would they even know where they were going?
She needed to locate them and find out what was going on. She needed to get these people under control.
But the only way to do that would be to leave her current location, and well, she couldn't do that at the moment. There were two reasons. First, Visha was in the Eleventh district right now. She had come home this morning to find out that she had been called in early by the third seat, which meant someone had to mind the store until she got back.
And the second reason, which was really important, was that if there was going to be any way to talk these people out of getting themselves executed alongside Rukia, Tanya needed to at least appear impartial. Thus, making direct contact with them was not a good plan, at least not directly. Having her agents, on the other hand, make contact with them was still on the table.
Looking over her shoulder at Tanya Lerghen and Hidenao, the pair were preparing a kit to head south and look into the situation. They needed to find the group and tell them to surrender if there was going to be any hope of saving Rukia. But she wasn't going to send them out there unprepared. So, they were preparing their weapons and gear for a long fight, in case the people that Ichigo was working with were not that friendly. They also packed food and supplies so they could stay on the move and not rely on any support network that was in the Eleventh district, especially with reports that the district's support network was collapsing under the attack.
Shaking her head, she moved away from the table about to give them their orders to move out when the door rang, and a member of the Eleventh Division stumbled in, muttering something as he fell into a chair. Before saying, "Hit me with a coffee, no wait, you got alcohol here, right? This is Visha's shop, she has to have alcohol. Give me a coffee without alcohol mixed in, I don't know, give me the whole bottle, just give me something."
Tanya raised an eyebrow before walking behind the counter, reaching underneath it, and pulling out a bottle of alcohol. She slid it down the counter to him and leaned over, saying, "Going to take it? You've seen some shit down in this invasion. Mind giving me an idea of what's going on? We're getting very confused reports."
The man cracked the bottle open and started drinking from it deeply. It was half gone before he put it down, saying, "Where to begin? I think the casualty rate has risen to 60%, though it might already be at 75% by this point. Whoever's organizing this attack is very thorough, hunting down the Eleventh Division. I don't know how many are still standing or how many men are still fighting. With the third and the fifth down, we ain't got much hope of pulling this off at the rate it's going."
Tanya stood up straight at that point, saying, "What? What do you mean the third and the fifth are down?"
The soldier looked at her, recognizing her, and said, "Tanya." He put the bottle down and gave her a look before saying, "The third and the fifth made combat with what was believed to be the strongest fighters of this operation. We don't know exactly what happened, but the third was found unconscious, and the fifth was in no better state."
"That's not good," Tanya muttered. Whoever beat them must have found an ally who was apparently strong. Could it be Hatsuho? After all, he was a former captain, and he would have the ability to take down a third seat and enough fifth seats. Hell, Tanya wasn't even sure she could take down Ikkaku of the Eleventh Division, and she had trained with him enough to know most of his moves.
"It would have to be a captain, right?"
'Unless Ichigo's been training the entire time since we left,'Tasha offered, and Tanya had to give it a moment of thought. Even with every month of training, it should be impossible. But then again, she hadn't been trained by a captain. Who knows what the former captain of the Twelfth Division knew and how to train people.
Shaking her head, though, she said, "What's the captain's plan?"
The soldier looked at her, confused, before she clarified, "What's Captain Kenpachi's plan? He's in the Eleventh district, isn't he? Trying to deal with this situation."
The reaper shrugged before saying, "He's there. He's been chasing after the fighting as best I can tell. I've got several reports that he's done the best he could. Currently, though, he's heading to the Fourth Division to debrief the third seat and find out what happened."
Tanya nodded in agreement. This was wise of him to do. The enemy, whoever they were, was proving themselves to be problematic even for the Eleventh Division. It was best to find out as much information as possible when dealing with that kind of situation. But it seemed odd to leave your division to their own devices when they were under assault.
Ah, but who was she kidding? Kenpachi was not down there fighting for the Eleventh Division. He was down there fighting for himself. So, leaving the Eleventh Division to do what he wanted while he found out more information made sense.
Shaking her head, Tanya said, "This is not going to end well," as she looked at the map with concern.
"Has the Tenth heard anything?" the reaper asked, drawing her away from her contemplation of the map.
Shaking her head, she said, "No, no, the Tenth hasn't gotten any reports about what's going on in the Eleventh district. We've also not received any reports on what to do. Central 46 has not been in communication with any of the divisions over the last several hours. I think they've gone into shock."
To be expected, really. Central 46 was as focused on the defense of the central districts as everyone else was. They would be shattered right now, filled with confusion and unsure of what to do and what moves to make. They will probably stay like that for the next 12 hours, not even sure where to allocate their assets. Which is a problem. Not because they knew what they were doing and we could send the assets where they need to be, but because when they finally get themselves out of whatever funk they're in, they're going to screw up.
Most likely, they would do something stupid to aggravate the situation even more. For instance, moving up the execution of Rukia. That could force the hand of the attackers to strike faster, and they would figure out that she is most likely who is responsible for this, after all.
When that happens, well, all hell would break loose. Whatever was holding back each of those groups from causing serious damage, as most of the casualties, as far as Tanya could find out, were injuries and not deaths, would go out the window. There is no record of any deaths at this moment, but the assault on the central tower where Rukia is being kept would probably turn into a bloodbath.
"This is going to require diplomacy on many levels... was there any way to diplomacy down from this?" she asked herself. It was very hard to say for sure. All she knew was they needed to get this situation back on track, which meant stopping the attack and getting the trial to proceed. She sighed, resting her head against the countertop in front of her.
"This is going to be a disaster no matter what happens," she finally settled on, taking a deep breath and lifting her head up. "Well, you've had your alcohol. I'll put it on a tab for the Eleventh Division to pay off."
The man nodded and took the bottle with him as he opened the door, stepping through and leaving Tanya with her thoughts.
The Tenth had been mobilized to some extent. From what she heard, they were being prepared to be sent into the Eleventh district if things kept going the way they were. She, herself, had not been mobilized simply because her sword was currently in the hands of her captain. She wouldn't be of much help without it. Oh sure, she would be of some help, but let's face the facts in this matter. If whoever was with Ichigo could take out a third seat of the Eleventh Division with his sword, what hope in hell did Tanya have of taking on this mysterious bastard without hers?
None. That was the situation as far as she saw it.
Shaking her head, she turned to Tanya Lerghen and Hidenao and said, "My kids, get out there and find out as much information as you can. Remember to report as often as possible and do not engage the enemy if you have any other choice. Back up and get away. It's the Eleventh district's situation for now, and we're just trying to find out what's going on. Got me?"
Lerghen snapped a salute and said, "I understand, ma'am," before picking up her bag and throwing it over her shoulder. Hidenao did the same, and the pair walked out the door, leaving Tanya alone with the shop for a moment, wondering what she was going to do about all of this mess and hoping that Visha was alright.
Those thoughts were interrupted as the door opened again, a bell ringing, and in stepped Renji, looking concerned, as he walked in.
"Good morning, Renji," she said, giving him a nod as he walked over to the counter and took a seat in front of her. "So, how bad is the situation over there?"
Tanya raised an eyebrow before saying, "You mean the situation of keeping Rukia's case from getting worse and maybe sparing her from execution? Pretty bad. Whoever is responsible for this assault screwed that up pretty good, but I still think we can pull it off if we can get them to stop and prevent them from helping Rukia escape."
Renji looked up at her, saying, "Do you really think these invaders are here about Rukia and are going to try to attack her prison cell?"
"I think it's more likely than not that they will. And the fact that they've apparently taken out the third seat of the Eleventh Division does not speak well for our chances of preventing the attack."
Renji stood up, asking, "They brought down Ikkaku. Is he alright?"
Tanya shrugged, saying, "He's apparently been defeated, but not killed, and he's been sent to the Fourth Division. That's all I know. But as far as I'm concerned, that speaks well for the fact that the attack will come on the tower sooner or later. Someone needs to be in the area to try and talk them down or at least get them to knock it off."
"Talk them down? Knock it off!? They're attacking us! Why would we try to talk peacefully to them?" Renji asked, and she nodded her head, saying, "Exactly. Why should we not? They are, from what I've been able to determine, not trying to cause any serious harm to anyone. They're here for Rukia, and that seems to be their only objective. Anyone who gets in their way gets hurt, but they're causing problems for her legal defense, and that's the problem we need to prevent. We need to prevent her from being given the opportunity to escape so that we can talk Central 46 into holding the trial still."
Renji nodded before saying, "The lieutenants are being gathered at the central district. Most likely, we're supposed to keep an eye out for the invaders. I guess I'll be the one to try and talk them down." He let out a laugh before saying, "This is not what I expected to happen when we brought Rukia back."
Tanya nodded in agreement, saying, "I didn't expect this amount of chaos either. I thought for sure we would have this situation handled peacefully, but something seems to have organized things in a way that does not go in that direction."
Renji looked at her for a moment before saying, "Someone's organizing this chaos."
Tanya frowned before saying, "I don't know. Something seems a little bit off about all this. But I do note that it does seem rather improbable that this situation has gone the way it did. I mean, I told you to meet Rukia at the other side of the park from where you ran into her."
"No, you didn't. You sent us a letter to meet her at the other end," Renji countered.
Tanya stopped, about to say something, and looked at him in confusion before saying, "No, I didn't."
"Yes, you did. The hell butterfly showed up with your letter," Renji insisted.
Tanya shook her head, saying, "No, no, I did not send that hell butterfly." She then narrowed her eyes and said, "Someone played us."
"What?" Renji said, bewildered.
"Someone played us. Someone used our information network against us to manipulate the situation to their liking. But who would want Ichigo hurt and Rukia brought in?" Tanya pondered.
Renji shrugged before saying, "The captain of the Fifth is thinking something's weird too. He said something felt off about the way Central 46 was acting."
Tanya sighed before she said, "Something is going on that we don't know about. Perhaps these people that each of you brought with you in order to give Ichigo an edge in these fights are part of it. Perhaps there's someone on the inside. All I know is..." She leaned forward on the countertop and said, "You need to be there. You need to go. You fought him, you can talk him down."
"What about you?" Renji asked.
"Well, it's quite simple. If someone is playing us against each other, I need to find out who's responsible for this. I'm going to try and get over to the Fifth tonight to see if I can talk to the captain about the situation. Perhaps he has some ideas," Tanya explained.
Renji nodded before saying, "Well, good luck, Tanya," as he got up from his chair.
"Good luck, Renji," Tanya said with a nod, meaning it sincerely, and wondered how she would proceed with the situation.
Writers note:missed me? I'm back with new big chapter yes yes i produces like bunch small chapter all over place but this stuff always getting worked on in background. And the dance of chaos has begun…
Please comment, review, and generally enjoy yourselves…
Edited by: Coltsguy
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Reviews
Eedura: that we do
danj0929: he here to help!
evilstatistic19:here you go
setokayba2n: hmmm it is a twist
TalonScythe: yeah i was thinking that as well but then star alighned to have fun
SirRealism: she coming
