Chapter 67: 1,000 Year Blood War Arc - Loss

Minata's POV

The 1st Division has always been known for being resolute in the face of danger, but there was a palpable tension in the air as people rushed to and fro through the hallways to prepare for the coming threat.

I had to bob and weave quite a few times to avoid running into some of the other members of the division, all of them scrambling to get to their proper battle stations in the wake of the impending threat.

Judging from the pillars of reishi that have popped up throughout the Seireitei in the past minute alone, the Quincies are not planning to re-introduce themselves quietly. They were definitely going to make a statement.

And now it was our turn to respond. Stretching out my senses as far as they could go, I could sense a number of high ranking shinigami moving toward the base of these pillars, one of them being Rukia. She's strong, having grown so much since Byakuya first brought her home to the manor all those years ago, but I can't help but worry for her well-being as we get closer to engaging the Quincies.

She has become like a sister to me, just as Hisana was back when she was still alive. Keeping his promise to his late wife was probably one of the best things that Byakuya has done in his life. It's done both of them good. Though they were distant with each other for the first couple of years, they've eventually warmed up to the other.

And now the Quincies threaten to tear it all apart, along with everything else in our world.

After narrowly avoiding the seventh person to almost bump into me, I finally reach the Captain Commander's office. It wasn't hard to feel his spiritual presence inside. At best, it could be considered smoldering embers ready to be set ablaze once again, or an explosion ready to be set off.

It's not hard to figure out what the possible trigger could be.

"Come in Lieutenant Fukudome!"

Taking note of his controlled tone, I quickly enter to see that his back was turned to me. He was standing near the patio, watching as the reishi pillars continued to shoot out from various points of the landscape. Falling to one knee, I keep my head bowed, awaiting his instructions, though I can already guess what he would say next.

"I leave the division under your care Fukudome."

Yep, knew this was coming.

"Yes, Captain Commander!" I automatically say, knowing it was the answer that he expected. The immediate gust of wind that hits the top of my head and the receding spiritual pressure is all that is needed to show that the old man has left to join the battlefield, and I've seen him off before . . . But this time, things feel different.

And I don't like it.

"Master?"

It took me a while to realize that I was still kneeling on the ground, a full two minutes since the Commander left. Two minutes that I could have used to do something productive, to further help our cause.

Instead, I stayed still on the ground, speculating on what could happen next.

"Yes Mizukiri?" I ask, finally getting up to see her standing a few steps away with concern in her eyes.

"I was wondering if you were going to stay glued to that spot for the entire war," she teases, her lips not even bothering to stretch into a smirk. "We best get a move on, shouldn't we?"

"Indeed; the division isn't going to run itself." I say, making my way to the door. When I opened it, Okikiba was already there, his hand raised in a fist to signal that he was just about to knock. ". . . You're too late Okikiba. He already left."

"After what happened to our men, especially Sasakibe, the Captain Commander leaving to join the fray so quickly is not much of a surprise," he says, resigned with what our superior went off to do. ". . . Did he leave any instructions before he departed?"

"Only that the division was under my care," I say, closing the door behind me. "Once he said that, he was gone."

"Like a man on a mission . . ." he surmises, his face already accepting of the older man's actions. "Anyway, we still have a job to do, and it's best that we carry them out. With the Captain Commander gone, that makes you the one in command my lady. What are your orders?"

"Make sure that every able-bodied member of this division is ready for battle. We need to make sure that we're not caught with our pants down in the fights to come. Oh, and double the guard in the prison sector!"

"You think the Quincies will go for the entire prison?" Okikiba asks, mildly shocked by my last words.

"Not the entire prison. Just a certain individual who has caused the Soul Society quite a headache with his deluded plans for grandeur during the last winter." I mumble, noticing the hint of realization that appeared in his eyes. "Yes, the Quincies should have no business in that area, but you must admit. He's the only one in that area that could remotely catch their interest. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them decided to investigate."

"I see your point . . . Your orders will be carried out ma'am."

"Good; they better be," I say, allowing myself a smirk to show I meant no harm. "We're about to do battle with our oldest enemy, and I don't plan on having our division being ill prepared to face them. There's going to be a lot of casualties once this day is over. Let's make sure we're not the ones dealt the heaviest toll."

Byakuya's POV

I was addressing a contingent of my division when the alarm went off, so loud that only those who were truly deaf wouldn't be able to hear it. Leaving them with a few commands, I head out on my own to see what was going on when I started to feel it.

The extinguishing of someone's spiritual pressure.

I knew that we were facing the Quincies.

I knew these Quinices are at a different level from those that waged war against the Soul Society a thousand years ago.

Any ideas that I may have had about their ability to wage carnage was thrown out the window when I felt the first shinigami fall.

It wasn't one or two falling after the other.

It was hundreds falling by the wayside, their reiatsu flickering out of existence in a matter of seconds.

What made matters even worse was the message that Kurotsuchi's Third Seat relayed throughout the Seireitei just seconds prior.

Somehow, though the 12th Division has yet to confirm this, the Quincies have been able to figure out a way to seal away our bankais. The idea that our long-standing enemy could weaken us like this is unsettling, and with the limited info we have, we won't know for sure unless we force them to act.

The only ones that could do such a thing are all the captains, a few of the lieutenants, and Kurosaki. If all of our bankais were sealed away, then it would be the end of us.

The Quincies would win.

Brushing those dark thoughts aside, it was best to find my lieutenant to see what he knew of the situation so far. As I moved, I eventually turned a corner to see a group of about ten shinigami cut down by the enemies' arrows.

It didn't take long for my shikai to taste blood.

"Thank you so much Captain Kuchiki!" The voice came from one of the shinigami who managed to escape the encounter unscathed. He was young, likely one of the newest recruits to graduate from the Academy judging from how traumatized he looked.

Probably didn't expect to face a Quincy invasion for his first task on the job.

"Stay vigilant!" I order, my voice a little harsher than I expected. "They will not be the only enemies you will face before this day is over. Watch your backs and do not let your guard down for a second."

"YES SIR!" they chorused, but I was too busy flash stepping away to hear what any of them would say next. I keep my spiritual pressure low, ensuring that I wouldn't attract any attention until the enemy was too late to react. Most of the Quincies I end up encountering were only low level in strength, but it wouldn't be long before my luck would run out.

I was bound to run into one of the stronger members of the invasion party.

I just didn't know when.

Eventually, I find Abarai confronting two Quincy in the middle of one of the larger boulevards. Not wanting to announce my presence just yet, I keep my spiritual pressure low as I settle on a nearby rooftop.

The two Quincies below me couldn't be any more different from each other. They were both dressed in white and wore masks, but that was where the comparisons ended. While one was large and muscular, the other was willowy, almost frail even. The larger of the two seemed boastful and loud, but the other was quiet, almost to the point of being unnerving.

He was likely the more dangerous of the two, by far.

Before I could even conjure up another thought, the dark haired one raises his hand, moving to outstretch it to my lieutenant. Abarai moves to head off any strike that would come his way, but the other man moves first, blocking his path with a strike of his fist against Zabimaru, sending the blade into the ground.

Abarai would have no time to block the other man's attack.

It's a good thing he's not alone then.

"AS NODT! What happened to your hand?!" The muscle man screams as all eyes went to the bloodied hand of his partner. There were numerous cuts running up and down the appendage, courtesy of a quick use of my zanpakuto's shikai.

"There's only one zanpakuto that I know of that could pull off something like that," I hear Abarai murmur before making my presence known a few feet behind them. "It's so nice for you to stop by Captain."

"Hm, I was simply passing through . . ." I say, playing into the dialogue. "It seems you have found some new company."

"OH! A NEW FOE!" calls the man that knocked Renji's weapon down.

"Look at what he's wearing Masculine," says the one that I now know as As Nodt. He was staring directly at me, his eyes taking in the haori I wear. "He's a captain!"

"A CAPTAIN?!" the other man bellows. "WELL! I CAN'T LET THIS OPPORTUNITY GO TO WASTE!"

He moves to attack Abarai while he's still distracted, but with a quick use of my shikai, he's out of the fight.

It likely won't last for long.

"You shouldn't be distracted Abarai. We need to crush these enemies, not leave them another moment to breathe." I remind him as I sneak a quick glance at the crater where the muscular Quincy lay.

"Understood sir!" he says, quick to snap his head at the other foe. "They're not going to be easy to defeat."

"I understand that Abarai," I say as I ready my blade. "According to the transmission earlier, the Quincies have a tool that allows them to seal away bankais. . . If either one of our bankais get sealed away, the other must use their bankai to counteract the seal."

"If it's risky to use our bankai from the beginning, should we not bother with them anyway?"

It's a fair question to ask, and if we were in a much better situation, I would have agreed to not using our bankais at all.

We simply weren't blessed to be in a better situation.

"Unfortunately, we're in a situation where the enemy can't be defeated easily without the use of bankai."

"Well . . . That's nice to know." I hear the redhead mumble. "Okay then, how do we do this? It's your call captain."

"It always is . . ." I say, not letting my exasperation shine through. It was likely all the stronger Quincies had a tool that could seal bankai, which makes my decision to incapacitate the other one that much better in hindsight.

Currently, we only had one seal to deal with; that was the good news. Unfortunately, if we were going to defeat our dark-haired foe, one of us would have to sacrifice our bankai to do it. It's not a prospect I want to entertain by any means, but every possible plan I could come up with ended up with one of us losing the use of our strongest technique.

We were fighting a high-risk battle, and there would be more losers than winners by the end of this fight.

"Are either of you going to make the first move?"

I hadn't taken note of his voice before, but I do now, and it is as unsettling as his entire demeanor. His posture, his voice, the narrowing of his eyes . . . they were all meant to unsettle. His stare was unflinching, as if he could figure out all of our weaknesses by simply staring into our souls.

"You are wasting time shinigami!" he continues to prod, obvious with his intention to get under our skin. "The more time you waste, the more comrades that die!"

"Unfortunately, he does make a good point."

"You don't have to remind me of that Senbonzakura." I think back, not liking the echo. Our next move is going to be crucial, and we can't have our enemies provoking us.

Unfortunately, playing into their plans may be our only option to seeing what we were truly working against.

"Abarai, watch our opponent closely." I order, keeping my tone low enough that only he would hear it.

"I thought I was doing it already," I hear him mumble, but then his head perks up, as if he now realizes the implication of my words. ". . . Oh, you're gonna . . ."

"I am," I say not needing him to finish the sentence. "Admittedly, every plan I could think of ends with the same results, and they are not the best."

"At least allow me to do it!" he almost yells. "You have the stronger bankai between us. It would be riskier for you to lose yours than me losing mine!"

"That is true," I argue, not bothering to disagree with him. Judging from the sudden scowl that comes across his face, a part of him must have wished I argued with him on that. "However, it likely wouldn't be as believable. Put yourself in the Quincies' place Abarai. Who do you expect to have a bankai in their possession: the shinigami captain, or their lieutenant?"

"I see where you're getting at . . . You're willing to put yourself out there as the sacrificial lamb, leaving me to do more of the heavy work," he realizes, not sounding angered or frustrated by my plan. In fact, he seems resigned to it, which I am not sure I should take as a good thing. "Hm, this is a huge risk to take Captain Kuchiki."

"I know, but we don't have any other option at the moment." I say, resigned to what I have chosen.

". . . Good to know," he says, his body tense, yet his voice was calm. "Let's do this then."

"Finally, . . ." the Quincy draws out the word as I ready my blade, holding it up to my face. He slowly pulls out a small medallion, the Quincy's five-pointed symbol emblazoned on the front.

"No turning back now . . ." Senbonzakura's voice echoes in my head as I call forth our strongest power. A black aura erupts from the Quincy's medallion, the sealing process already beginning. I brace myself for the fallout of the act . . .

. . . And then the sudden feeling of a part of me being broken down and ripped away makes me realize the grave mistake I've made, my zanpakuto's sudden silence almost deafening.

"Captain!" I hear Abarai call to me, my eyes wide as I looked up to see his startled face. "What happened? Was your bankai sealed away?!"

"It wasn't sealed away Renji," I say, my shock apparent as I looked down at my blade. "Senbonzakura Kageyoshi . . . My bankai . . . It was stolen!"

A/N: Please review!