New chapter is FINALLY here. I probably sound like a broken record, but oh well. I wanted this to be done about a week and a half ago, but that sure didn't happen. If anyone is interested, I'll go over why it was delayed at the bottom of the chapter.
As always, thanks to everyone who has favorited, followed, or taken the time to leave a review! I hope you all enjoy the chapter!
Oh, and before we begin the chapter, I'd like to take a brief moment to address something brought up in the reviews. I have not taken part in any Bleach power scaling discussions at any point in the past and I have no intention of doing so going forward. Terminology relating to power scaling is lost on me (country level, sub/supersonic, etc.) I find this sort of talk aggressively anti-fun, and given that this is fanfiction, it's egregious to assume that the characters in the story will be as strong or as weak as they are in canon. When it comes down to the simple reasons, I started this story because A) Bleach has hot women, interesting themes, and great music. And B) Nikke has hot women, interesting themes, and great music. I wanted to combine the two. That's all there is to it. Now, on with the story.
It didn't take more than one single shunpo to cover the remaining distance between himself and Rapunzel's squadmate. She hadn't noticed him yet; her attention was on the tide of Raptures ahead of them.
Attacking the ruined town was a swarm of Raptures larger than any Ichigo had seen in the few days he'd been in this new world.
Granted, that didn't really mean a lot given that this was only the third grouping of these things he'd run into, but the point stood. The Raptures were amassing in the distance, scuttling, crawling, and in some cases flying towards the ruins in waves of black and grey.
Honestly though, he wasn't sure if his help was needed. This lady looked to have things covered pretty well even against the small army of approaching Raptures. The white-clad warrior's massive rifle- a friggin' cannon that looked like it belonged on a warship rather than being held in someone's hands, was sending bullets plowing through the throng of Raptures like they were made of tissue paper.
Good thing being a soul reaper meant his ears weren't subject to normal human limitations, or the deafening roar of the white-haired woman's weapon would've already left his ears ringing.
'Should I step in? …Naw, she's got this. I've never seen anyone fighting with a gun before. That's actually pretty cool.' There was something to be said for the aesthetic of fighting monsters with modern weapons.
Ururu's weird, bandage-wrapped bazooka-thing didn't count.
The gun-toting lady wasn't alone, either. Ichigo could see another woman- pale and likewise dressed in white, darting about nearby fighting not with an oversized gun but with a long, single-edged sword. That had to have been Scarlet.
Her sword must've been made out of some fancy, expensive stuff to be able to cut through the Raptures so easily; even at this distance he could see the precise slashes left on the metal bodies, so smooth and even they looked like they'd been hewn by a laser beam!
He wasn't the kind of guy to butt into other someone else's fight, not unless things were going sideways and they needed backup. That left him free to turn his attention elsewhere, looking towards the opposite direction not covered by Rapunzel's teammates.
'Damn… these things are everywhere… I'm starting to see why humanity didn't win the fight against these guys,' Ichigo mentally remarked, drawing his sword and shooting forwards with another shunpo.
There had to have been several hundred Raptures on this side of town alone. And while they weren't a threat to him, even in such numbers…
The only time he'd seen hollows massing in numbers like this had been when Uryu had pulled that dumbass stunt with the hollow bait back when he'd first met the guy.
That had been an anomaly by the standards of the Soul Society, but this… if this was a standard attack force by the Raptures' standards, no wonder mankind remained stuck underground.
There were new shapes amongst the horde. Several of the robotic creatures stuck out like sore thumbs, their appearances less animalistic and more… alien in appearance, these new ones each standing over ten feet tall, dwarfing their squat counterparts.
A few of the mechanical abominations were even bigger than that; Ichigo counted at least two of what he was assuming were the big boss Raptures that reached a height comparable to that of a two-story building.
'Huh… I thought the Raptures all looked like mechanical animals, but some of those bigger ones wouldn't look out of place in mecha anime.' Seriously, quadrupedal walking tanks armed with laser cannons, missile launchers, and rail guns? It was a shame none of the Visored were here; he knew that a few of them would've sold their left arms for the chance to destroy an army of homicidal mechs.
Ah well. He didn't need anyone other than himself. The cracked streets were filled with Raptures funneling through them; continuing their unending march towards Rapunzel's teammates, and from his vantage point atop what had once been an old apartment complex, he was in prime position to ambush the horde before they could catch the fighting women in a pincer attack!
"Alright, no time like the present to get started! You aren't sneaking up on anyone!" Ichigo called out, Zangetsu glowing with golden light as his spiritual energy gathered.
"Getsuga Tenshō!"
The smaller Raptures stood no chance; given how they'd packed themselves in like sardines in between the buildings lining the road they'd made themselves prime targets for one massive burst of energy to take them out. The crescent moon of concentrated spiritual energy swept through them, slicing through crimson cores and detonating everything in its path!
"Hah, unless these things learn how to dodge, this fight's going to be over pretty quickly!" Ichigo scoffed, surveying the carnage before him. One blast was all it had taken to put a dent in numbers of the Rapture swarm; that one attack had taken out a couple dozen of them alone from their original number of maybe two hundred.
He was still far from done with this fight, though, and now that he'd made himself a known variable the Raptures were responding in kind. Ichigo dodged, ducked, and twisted around the hailstorm of bullets and beams coming his way.
An ordinary human would've been turned into a limp, bloody mess, perforated so many times they would've resembled Swiss Cheese, but when you could fly, evading stuff like this was child's play! Ichigo had the aerial advantage; with the sky as his backdrop the Raptures continued fire didn't amount to much more than firing blindly into the endless blue of the sky!
"Getsuga Tenshō! …Whoops…" Ichigo winced as his next attack carved through another dozen Raptures, as well as the building behind them. The structural integrity of the old, overgrown ruin clearly hadn't accounted for a sudden massive blast of spiritual energy, because the whole thing came crashing down in a thunderous roar of crumbling masonry!
…Good thing he didn't have to worry about civilian casualties in a place like this.
The Raptures weren't behaving any more tactically than they had when he'd first made himself known. Even in the face of his overwhelming firepower, they continued the ceaseless advance. Short, squad, crablike Raptures were scuttling over the newly created rubble, while their brethren swarmed around the sides of the collapsed building, funneling into the empty streets to try and flank Ichigo. There were flying Raptures to; ovular floating drones that spat beams of red light at him.
Just because the laser beams didn't look very threatening, especially given that he'd tanked cero blasts more threatening, didn't mean he was going to let them hit him. Only a dumbass kept still when their enemy was shooting at them.
The floating Raptures bounced like pinballs as Ichigo darted between them in a flurry of swinging fists and lashing kicks. There was something darkly humorous seeing the small Raptures careening around helplessly as he jumped between them, effortlessly evading their efforts to shoot him full of holes.
Beneath the collapsed building, something shifted.
Ichigo's eyes widened as a grinding roar emanated out from the towering pile of rubble the old apartment building had collapsed into, before-
*VWOOOSH*
Ichigo dodged, shooting sideways as a massive beam of light and heat; white-blue and so bright it was almost blinding, burst through the wreckage, carving a path of destruction as it went. The rubble the large Rapture had been hiding under wasn't cast aside so much as it was vaporized by the laser beam the Rapture had just fired off!
The world went quiet around Ichigo. Looking behind him, nothing but his own pulse echoing in his ears, he looked at the damage that one attack had caused.
An entire row of buildings all the way up to the end of the town were gone. Not ruined, not falling apart, gone. And the beam of condensed energy hadn't stopped there; Ichigo could see the grassland surrounding the town was sporting a new landmark, a scorched, ashy trench over twenty feet wide carved into the land and extending all the way to the horizon.
His gaze lingered on the cauterized, red-hot, perfectly smooth edges where the beam had passed through, before quickly returning to his foe.
An attack of that magnitude unleashed in the center of Karakura Town would've been devastating. Ichigo could already picture how the Raptures might've deployed this war machine; a territory-clearing monster capable of wiping entire city blocks off the map in seconds. Left unchecked, it wasn't an exaggeration to call this metal beast a city-killer.
The Rapture itself was different from any other he had encountered so far. The machine-creature-thing looked oddly short and squat, despite the fact that it towered over him at its full height of roughly fifteen feet. Its body was largely polished silver in color, supported by black legs that seemed to be almost too spindly to support the top-heavy creature. And as for its body?
Two massive railguns flanked by a wide, octagonal head. The Rapture had no face, but the angular nodes on the front of its 'head' formed a crude facsimile of a gaping, grinning maw.
Ichigo's face twisted into a snarl. Up till now he'd been taking it easy. The Raptures he'd seen so far hadn't been capable of harming him or Nelliel, and that had allowed him to settle into a sense of security.
This was different. This new Rapture was a genuine threat. An attack of that magnitude that melted and incinerated all in its path wasn't to be taken lightly. Hell, he wasn't sure if he could take a hit like that and walk away from it afterwards!
It was too much to hope that such a powerful attack was a one-off thing, because he could already see energy crackling in the creature's maw and sparking up and down its rail cannons as it prepared to fire another blast.
"Hah! You think I'll let you fire that off again a second time?!" The sooner the boss Rapture was dead, the better. Just because he and Nel could evade stuff like that all day long, all it took was one slip-up.
She'd been very clear that her current adult form was unstable, and Ichigo's blood boiled at the thought of Nel being reduced to her tiny, lisping child form in the face of a foe that wouldn't hesitate to end her life.
"Bankai!" Golden spiritual energy darkened, turning black tinged with red. His ragged robes were replaced by the overcoat that Tensa Zangetsu always generated as the massive cleaver thinned, shifting closer to a proper katana in appearance.
The Rapture; which he'd taken to calling Chuckles, didn't know what hit it. Chuckles released an ear-splitting screech as Tensa Zangetsu lopped through one of its four legs, the robotic creature staggering as its balanced shifted.
"Hah! Guess with all that attack power you never considered working on your defense!"
He received another electronic shriek in response. Right. Combat banter was going to be a hell of a lot more difficult when one side couldn't return a coherent response.
Chuckles lashed out, its big blocky head sweeping around as it fired off a smaller burst of energy from its railguns, this time trying to catch Ichigo in a searing wave of horizontal light before spitting up a crackling blast from its maw.
Each one was evaded effortlessly. Sure, Chuckles had attack power in spades, but fighting a soul reaper on his level was way above its paygrade. Hell, after getting a feel of how the Rapture fought, he was pretty sure any of the lieutenants could've evaded its attacks and destroy it without issue. The Rapture's movements were too big, too telegraphed. All flash and show and no precision. Against a battalion of regular humans, it would've seemed like a terrifying abomination of insurmountable power, but to him? This was just another day at work.
Okay, so maybe using Bankai for this thing had been overkill. It had some dangerous moves, but it didn't have a snowball's chance in Hell of actually getting a hit on him.
'…No, it's still a threat, and it's getting put down like one. I'm overthinking this.' Because there was even a chance that the Raptures was capable of harming his friends, that meant that it had to be destroyed.
Ichigo ducked under another horizontal swing of Chuckles' railguns, the beam of blue light passing harmlessly over his head as he darted forwards. The Rapture shrieked as Tensa Zangetsu severed its other foreleg, and the robotic creature lost its balance and went down headfirst into the ground.
'I can't see its core anywhere… Must be inside the head. Oh well, guess I'll just do this!' Ichigo grunted as he darted back, before shooting forwards with a shunpo, his Bankai pointed ahead of him like a spear splitting the air.
"!" The electronic squeal from the downed Rapture cut off abruptly as Zangetsu sank in up to the tsuba into the metal creature's car-sized head.
'Guess I was right. All offense without a hint of armor. …That was kind of a let down. I've fought regular hollows that were more durable than this thing. …Wait, what's it-'
"Oh, shit!"
Ichigo leapt back just in time to clear the blast radius as Chuckles' head exploded with the force of a small bomb, sending shrapnel whizzing across the street.
"…Heh. Guess that's it then." Looking around, Ichigo saw that the battle was wrapping up. Chuckles had been accompanied by several dozen of his smaller buddies, nearly all of whom had coincidentally been taken out by their leaders fumbling attempts to vaporize him. The ones that had made it past him had been cut down by Nelliel; who seemed to have taken it upon herself to linger further behind than the others. Rapunzel and her teammates approached; one of the two new women dashing forwards.
In terms of appearance and dress, there was no uniformity to the Pioneer Squad. Rapunzel was towering, voluptuous, and clad in religious garb. By comparison, her fellow squad members were much shorter and more modestly built by comparison.
"Who… Who art thou? And what manner of trickery allows thee to wield a blade with such potency?!"
"Uh…"
Was it normal for the oddly dressed woman to be speaking like she was about to take part in some Shakespearean performance, or was that just him? He couldn't tell if the short woman was angry, excited, or accusatory. Hell, it could've been all three at once.
Going by context; the context here being that this was the sword-wielding woman he'd seen earlier; this had to be Scarlet.
Scarlet was a rather short woman with bright brown eyes and ash-blonde hair; at first glance she appeared to stand at around five and a half feet tall, but her bizarre stilted shoes and enormous conical hat together added at least four or five inches to her height.
He'd also been expecting her to dress, well, in scarlet like her name, but her revealing outfit was almost entirely white, save for royal purple accents on her waist sash, arm guards, and the tassels on her hat and sword sheathe. Modesty clearly wasn't a priority of hers; judging by the wide swaths of pale flesh exposed from her outfit's open shoulders and other conspicuous gaps… In all honesty, her shirt more closely resembled a fancy tank top than an actual shirt, and there was a noticeable gap between the legs of her pants and her waist sash, revealing a not inconsequential amount of her thighs. Overall, she was a beautiful woman just like Rapunzel, but beautiful in a different manner. She wasn't exactly slender, but she lacked the bombastic curves that Rapunzel sported.
"Hah! Choosing to remain silent? Art thou unable to answer my question?"
"Wha- No! Did… Did Rapunzel not tell you about me?"
"Whatever dost thou mean? How do you know my companion? Rapunzel said nothing other than that she encountered survivors on her way here."
Shoot, it probably was too much to hope that Rapunzel had been able to gloss over what he and Nel could do. Granted, he'd split away from them to take care of the Raptures on this side of town only a few minutes ago, so that probably wasn't anywhere near enough time for Rapunzel to drop a world-shattering bomb on her friends.
"I'll explain what I can in a minute. First, uh… I'm not in trouble, am I? Your friend is just staring at me. Menacingly." Scarlet blinked in surprise at Ichigo's words, turning to look at her other companion, who had caught up to her by now.
At least, he thought she was staring at him menacingly. He couldn't actually see what the expression on the white-haired woman's face was thanks to the blocky, black visor covering her entire face. Honestly, just calling her 'white-haired' felt like he was doing her a disservice. Her hair wasn't just white, it was one of the prettiest shades of white he'd ever seen. Snow White- her hair matched her name, being the exact color of freshly fallen snow.
The rifle-wielding woman was taller than Scarlet, but not nearly as tall as Rapunzel, and there was no misjudging her height either, because unlike Scarlet her wardrobe choices didn't make her look taller.
There was also a lot less to say about the woman's clothes; the thick, white poncho she wore showed years' worth of wear and tear and hid most of her body from sight. Well, except for…
Ichigo kept his eyes on her visored face, and not on the fact that the woman's poncho only went as far as her thighs, leaving her pale legs almost entirely on display. What was of significant more interest to him was the blocky armor she wore, thick shoulder pads of black mixed with gunmetal grey and bright yellow accents. Well, they were either accents or digital lights on the armor.
Her arms from hand to elbow, and legs from foot to knee were completely covered in the same armor, though given that he'd learned by now that Nikke were cyborgs, sort of like Motoko Kusanagi, he couldn't tell if that was armor or if the woman had outright replaced the limbs.
The woman chose that moment to retract her visor, though perhaps it was an involuntary motion. He'd been expecting an intimidating scowl, and he couldn't have been more wrong. Without her visor obscuring her face, Ichigo had to bite his lip to keep from bursting out laughing at the sight of the woman staring at him, eyes bulging and jaw agape.
Definitely not the 'cool, collected warrior' image he'd painted in his head.
"You two must be Rapunzel's friends. Good to meet you; she's had nothing but good things to say."
"Ah, y-yes… I am Scarlet, of the Pioneer squad. Now, pray tell-"
"Yeah, yeah. How can I destroy Raptures on my own, shoot lasers from my sword, and so on. I'll answer your questions, but first… Is there something wrong with your teammate?"
"Whatever do you mean- Oh! Snow White, behave yourself! I do believe you'll catch flies if your mouth remains open any longer."
"Oof!" Snow White grunted in surprise as Scarlet nudged her with one elbow, the woman's honey-brown eyes widening as the woman in question stiffened, snapping back to reality.
"Y-You! Who?! What?!" There looked to be a thousand questions on the woman's
Okay, on one hand Ichigo could understand… kind of the shock that the two women they were feeling. He knew what it was like to have the veil lifted from over your eyes, finding out that there was a whole side to the world he had known nothing about.
He'd gotten over the whole 'spirits are forever with you' kind of thing fairly quickly. Fighting hollows had helped him learn early on that it was either 'adapt or die.'
But on the other hand, Ichigo wasn't going to fall into the trap of having to explain to every woman that he met in this world that yes, he was a man, and yes, he could fight and defend himself.
"Okay, I think I can guess what you're going to ask me. Yes, I'm a guy. The name's Ichigo Kurosaki. Yes, that was me fighting and destroying Raptures. The sword," he hefted Tensa Zangetsu, watching as the two stunned women's wide eyes tracked every movement he made. "The sword is a conduit for my power. I don't need Zangetsu to fight, but I definitely fight best with Zangetsu in my hands. Any other questions?"
"O-only about a million!"
"…Pick three, otherwise we'll be here all day. You first, sword-lady."
"HOW in the world art thou capable of such feats? Even the weakest of Raptures are resistant to conventional firearms! No human should be capable of standing against them… But that… That was a Lord class Rapture you faced, and it stood no chance against your mighty blade!"
'Lord class? Then there is some kind of hierarchy to the Raptures… I wonder if it's anything like how Hollows are classified?' But he could think about that later. Answering questions came first.
"…I have superpowers." An answer that was technically true, in a broad sense.
"Art thou mocking me?! That is hardly a sufficient answer!"
"Girls, calm down! I won't have either of you pestering poor Ichigo with incessant questions!"
"Rapunzel, how can you say that?! You saw what he was capable of with your own eyes-"
"I most certainly did, Snow White. And though seeing Ichigo fell a Rapture Lord so effortlessly is… exciting… After all, seeing a man overcoming Raptures with the strength of his arms… his sturdy, muscular arms-" And there came the panting and flushed cheeks again.
"Er… *ahem* As I was saying, watching a man cut down Raptures is an… unprecedented development, it is nothing to be alarmed about. I've spent the last several days traveling with Ichigo and his companion. They're good people, trustworthy people. And they need our help."
"How can he need our help? You saw what he was capable of! That was a Loud Mouth! A Rapture on that level takes entire platoons of mass-produced Nikke to destroy!"
"Firstly, Snow White, I believe that your disbelief and excitement are causing you to be rather unhelpful, if not downright rude with your words. Secondly… Ichigo here is hardly alone. Nelliel, are you- ah!"
The woman in question appeared at Rapunzel's side in a burst of static. If Snow White and Scarlet's eyes could've widened any further they'd be bulging right out of their sockets.
"I understand that the two of you have a great many things to ask my… our new companions, but please understand that they are strangers struggling to find their way through a hostile land."
"…Whatever dost thou mean?"
"We aren't from here. Prior to yesterday, I had no idea what a Nikke was."
"T-that's… not possible. Nikke have been around for-"
"Nel and I went over all this with Rapunzel already. I don't want to be rude, but this isn't a conversation I want to have again. Just… look, Nel and I are a long way from home. I'll just leave it at that."
Scarlet adopted a deeply pensive look on her face, while Snow White cast an almost pleading look up towards her towering teammate.
"They're good people, Snow White. They're friends."
The nun and the sharpshooter remained locked in place, gaze-for-gaze, for another few seconds, before Snow White let out a long-suffering sigh and turned away from the blonde, looking back at Ichigo and Nel.
"I… apologize, if I came across as hostile at all. That was not my attention. It's just been… a very long time since any of us encountered friendly faces on the surface. If Rapunzel says that you're good people, I'll take her word for it. There's no one around better at judging someone's character than her. …Even with all her faults."
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!"
Rapunzel turned bright red as everyone stared at her. He couldn't blame her, even if Snow White was blatantly calling her out like that. Hell, even Nelliel gave her an absolutely deadpan look!
"Fighting Raptures is one thing, noble Ichigo. But a strapping young man like thyself spending a night in Rapunzel's company? That requires bravery unmatched," Scarlet chimed in, clearly relishing the mortified gasp from her blond buddy.
"She's not… that bad." Was it wrong of him for wanting to laugh at the way the pink-faced Rapunzel squirmed in mortification?
"Seriously, though. So what if she's got a couple of quirks? She's been a real lifesaver to Nel and me."
"That's right! The two of us were completely lost! If it weren't for us encountering Rapunzel, we'd still be wandering aimlessly!"
He'd been wondering when Nel was going to say something. She'd been troublingly quiet for a while now.
…He'd speak to her later. If there was anything on her mind, anything he could do for her, he'd do it.
"So… what now?"
"What do you mean?
"Rapunzel said she could take us to the Ark. You can do that, right?"
Pioneer exchanged a look, before Snow White spoke up.
"We haven't actually been in the Ark before, but yes, we can make sure that you get in."
"Wait, if you haven't ever been in the Ark, how have you been fighting Raptures? Where do you get your supplies from?"
"Scavenging, mostly."
Ichigo turned to look at the worried Rapunzel, horrible realization dawning on him. Nikke were robotic in nature; technically cyborgs but closer to being full-on androids, which meant that they probably didn't age. It hadn't even been something he'd considered; fighting alongside people who were WAY older than they looked had become so commonplace he sometimes forgot that Rukia and Renji were over a hundred years older than him.
But Rapunzel and her comrades weren't soul reapers. They weren't hollows. They were human; or at least the mind and soul of a human being piloting a robotic shell.
"Rapunzel, you said that the first Rapture invasion happened almost a century ago. How long have you been up here on the surface for?"
Rapunzel's smile was a mournful one.
"When Nikke were first created, mankind had all but lost hope that we would survive our fight with the Raptures. Earth's remaining governments pooled their resources together, banding together what forces they had left, and sharing their funds to develop the Nikke project. During this time, the pinnacle of humanity's fighting forces was created. The Goddess squad; mankind's last hope."
'A fitting name, I guess. …I can't imagine the kind of pressure those women must've been under, being given the responsibility of fighting for all mankind. Wait a minute… Don't tell me-' Ichigo's eyes widened as the dots finally connected.
Everything Rapunzel had told him; not just now but in general had been based off of firsthand accounts, rather than by studying old information. She spoke like someone who had lived through the fall of mankind, rather than being part of the generations to come afterwards.
It was Nel who spoke first, having reached the same conclusion he had, but faster.
"You three… You're the Goddess squad, aren't you? The protectors of humanity?"
"We're what's left of it, yes."
The Soul Society sure didn't take those who shirked their duties kindly, but at least they had infrastructure and organized squads to handle the many duties of overseeing the afterlife.
Snow White, Scarlet, and Rapunzel had no such aid. By their own words, they'd been wandering the ruins of mankind completely alone for the better part of a century,
In other words, it had been the three of them against who knew how many Raptures, every day of every week of every year, for close to 100 years.
They had no backup, no allies, and no home to return to.
'No wonder Rapunzel was so shocked to find Nel and me! We might be the first friendly faces she's seen in years, not counting her own teammates.'
And it wasn't like Rapunzel and her teammates had spent the last century consistently at each other's sides; she'd been pretty clear that their meetings like this, while planned, weren't events that happened too frequently.
What would that be like? For a moment, he tried picturing himself in Pioneer's shoes; as if he and his friends were lost in the endless sands of Hueco Mundo. Wandering endlessly, meeting up with his friends; Orihime, Rukia, Chad, Uryu, and Renji once every few months, never once seeing another friendly face in between those occasional reunions.
Just endless battles with no rest, no reprieve, and no way to return to his home.
He couldn't even begin to imagine living life like that.
Nel's response was far quicker than his; as someone who could in fact perfectly understand how wretched such a lonely existence was.
"In my lifetime, I've found that making new friends is an exceptional rarity. Anytime I DO make a new friend is cause to celebrate."
"Celebrate?" Snow White's eyes held an odd gleam to them.
"Why, of course! Now that we're all together, and the Raptures are defeated, we should celebrate!" Rapunzel's smile could've illuminated even the darkest of caves.
"Ah, what a fine day, to be able to relax in the company of new friends as well as old!"
"Before that, don't we need to, I don't know, clean all this up or something?" Ichigo gestured all around them; indicating the countless bits and pieces of the destroyed Raptures scattered around the now even more ruined town.
"Oh, we've camped out in worse plenty of times! And it's not like there's anyone here waiting for us to make this place livable again. We just need to find a spot nearby relatively free of damage, and then the merriment can begin! And besides, it isn't wise to stand in the way of Snow White and a victory celebration."
"Wait, what do you mean-"
"Celebrations mean food," The woman in question growled, wiping at her lips with the back of one armored hand. "There's a river nearby, and that means fresh fish."
"F-food?" Now Nel was butting in, brushing past him as she closed the gap between herself and Snow White.
The horned woman's eyes were wide and excited, and though Ichigo wasn't as excitable as the Arrancar, he internally mirrored her sentiments. No more decades-old, suspiciously well-preserved rations, and he couldn't have been more thankful for that!
Though as he eyed the ravenous look on Nel's face, maybe he might've been underselling just how much his Arrancar friend was looking forward to eating something fresh.
"If that's everything," Ichigo gave one final glance at the ruins around him. Not a living Rapture in sight. "I wouldn't turn down some food either."
"Excellent!" Rapunzel clapped her hands, beaming brightly. "And don't think I haven't forgotten my promise to the two of you. We'd be more than happy to guide you to the Ark. We'll go over that later… first, I believe all of us are looking forward to this!"
'Looking forward to' the victory celebration, even if on paper it was little more than a camp out was maybe an understatement; given that Snow White had already vanished in a cartoonish puff of dust. Scarlet and Rapunzel, by comparison, were ambling off in the direction their friend had gone with a leisurely, carefree gait as if they had all the time in the world.
Probably not an inaccurate statement when you were an ageless cyborg.
"We'll catch up with you all in a moment!"
"Whatever you say, Miss Nelliel! Just follow the smoke, I'll be working on getting a fire going."
Ichigo watched Rapunzel walking away until she turned a corner and vanished from sight, leaving him alone with Nel.
"Something bugging you, Nel? You look like you have something on your mind."
"You… you're alright? No injuries from fighting those Raptures?"
"None at all. I appreciate the concern, but you already know that these guys were way to weak to be any kind of threat to me. Except for the big guy at the end, but even he didn't amount to much."
Ichigo must've missed something, because his words failed to placate Nel, the apprehensive look remaining on her face.
"I guess you saw that beam it launched."
"It would've been hard not to. An attack of that magnitude… I hadn't realized these Raptures were capable of such things."
"Yeah, it caught me off guard too. That's why I used my Bankai; I wasn't about to let that thing go on living when all of you were so close by. Though it turned out that using my Bankai was overkill. I really overestimated how good that Rapture was going to be at taking hits." Ichigo's overcoat shifted back to his normal Shihakushō, Tensa Zangetsu reverting to Zangetsu.
"Was that bothering you, Nel? I mean, I won't lie. That Rapture was capable of dealing a ton of damage, but with no accuracy or agility it didn't stand a chance against me."
"That's… that's not it. I just… Ichigo, how do you feel about fighting Raptures?"
"What do you mean? They're different from hollows and soul reapers, that's for sure. Sure, there's a lot more of them to fight at once, but they're way weaker than the guys I'm used to fighting. The boss Rapture didn't even transform! Do you know how long it's been since I've fought someone who couldn't use some kind of transformation power-up?"
His tactful response earned him a small giggle from Nelliel, but the slight smile faded back into the frown he was trying to drive away.
"Yes, I imagine fighting foes like this when compared to the Espada would be a significant step down. I… I suppose there's no point in beating around the bush. I find myself rather displeased at how little aid I have been to you of late."
"Wait, what? Nel, what's that supposed to mean? You've been wonderful!"
"I appreciate you saying so, Ichigo, but I hardly feel like I have earned such praise." The buxom woman sighed, turning away from him as she stared off aimlessly into the distance, down the ruined street.
"Nel, you don't need to do anything. Honestly… just having somebody from my own world at my side is a huge relief. I don't think I'd be managing nearly as well if it was just me stuck here."
Nel huffed softly, her frown growing.
"You can say that, and yet it has been you who has been doing the fighting, the defending. Not just here, but in Hueco Mundo as well… For all the kindness you've shown to me, I've done an inexcusably poor job repaying you."
"I wasn't looking after your child form because I was expecting you to pay me back for it, Nel. I did it because it was the right thing to do."
"All the more reason for me to repair you, Ichigo. Kindness is seldom seen in Hueco Mundo, which makes it all the more aggravating that I have been doing such a poor job at fighting by your side. Even if we never face any foes strong enough to present a real challenge to either of us… what do you think will happen when we return to our own world?"
"What do you mean?"
"What I'm saying is; do you think you can just jump right back into the fray when we return? Nnoitra managed to get the best of both of us quite easily," Nelliel sighed, her shoulders slumping.
"Hey, that only happened because that bastard took advantage of mine and Grimmjow's fight! And he ambushed you; if he'd fought fair back then, I bet you would've kicked his ass!"
"Hrm… maybe so. But Nnoitra is far from our only foe in Hueco Mundo, and of them, he's hardly the most dangerous."
"Right… Nnoitra might've been a bit stronger than Grimmjow, but there's no way he was anywhere close to Ulquiorra's level. Guess the gap between number 4 and 5 is higher than the gap between 5 and 6."
Nel shuddered at the mention of Ulquiorra.
"A foe like that… He's beyond me. And the instability of my current form would certainly limit my usefulness in a fight against him. …Regrettably, I doubt I'd be able to do more than buy you time against such a powerful foe."
First off, Ichigo was in no way expecting Nel to fight at his side when he inevitably returned to Hueco Mundo. It wasn't something he'd really been thinking about, but he'd kind of expected that she'd want to remain neutral, given that he was going to be fighting other Arrancar. That was assuming that the battle was even still ongoing; given that they'd been out of the loop for several days by now. He could only hope that one of his other friends had been able to rescue Orihime in his stead.
But right now, what weighed even more heavily on him was that he really didn't know how to feel about Nel being so quick to label his foes as her own. It was a strange feeling; but not a bad one. Just… new. Ulquiorra was the one responsible for kidnapping Orihime in the first place, which made him Ichigo's sworn foe. By all rights, Nel was free to leave him as soon as they returned to their home world.
He imagined she had quite the bone to pick with Nnoitra. As much as he wanted his pound of flesh from that smug jackass, Nel deserved the first shot at Nnoitra far more than he did. But first…
He hated admitting it, but Nel was right about her current form being a liability. At least he could understand a little of where she was coming from; he didn't want to lose control of his hollow and go berserk in the middle of a fight anymore than Nel wanted to revert to her child form in the middle of a battle.
"So… can Arrancar not fix their masks?"
"P-pardon?"
"I mean, I can fix my mask. You saw me using it when I was fighting Grimmjow, remember?"
"Well, I can't claim to understand the specifics of how your hollow powers work, but you're a soul reaper first and foremost. That mask of yours was an additional power-up, which means it isn't the core of your powers. For an Arrancar like myself, my mask fragment represents much more than just a temporary boost in strength. It's the very core of my being. …If a hollow's mask could be fixed so easily, Pesche, Dondochakka, and myself would've recovered long ago."
"I see what you mean. Are there any ways Arrancar can get stronger other than eating pluses or other hollows?"
"…Not that are available to me."
"…Damn. And we haven't seen any other hollows around since we got here, either."
"Ichigo, I'm not going to go around eating souls on the off chance that it might help me recover! I'll… I'll find another way. One that doesn't involve sacrificing others."
"Sorry, sorry! I didn't mean to imply anything. I was just thinking about what I knew about hollows. You evolve once you eat a certain amount of souls, and your form changes on evolution, so I was thinking…"
"That if I evolved it would somehow fix my mask? Even if I wanted regain my strength through such a barbaric manner, it would be impossible. I was already a Vasto Lorde prior to becoming an Arrancar. Hollows cannot evolve beyond that point."
The conversation between the two lapsed into an awkward silence at that point. Nel's problem was both tangible and very relatable, and tragically not one that Ichigo had any solutions to offer.
…He'd just have to put a pin in that thought. His primary goal remained getting to the Ark. Once he and Nel were out of the wasteland and no longer surviving day-to-day on scraps they could focus on their longer-term goals.
"Well… It's not like we'll be able to get home right away, so we'll… we'll come up with something. I promise you, Nel, I'll find a way to help you!" Nel swallowed softly at the words, staring wide-eyed at him.
"Now come on, we shouldn't keep the others waiting. They're probably wondering why we're taking so long."
"Oh, I hope they have the food ready!"
It was amazing seeing how quickly Nel was capable of going from sullen to excited; he had to sprint to not be left in the green-haired woman's dust as she dashed off in the direction the Pioneer squad had headed!
True to their words, there was indeed a small river running alongside the town. Despite the trashed state of the town, the river and its surroundings were downright picturesque. The clear blue stream was surrounded by reed-lined banks cutting across the green hills, stretching as far as the eye could see. Rapunzel and her friends had already set up camp on the riverbank in the shade of a copse of trees. Ichigo strolled over to where Rapunzel was putting the finishing touches on a campfire fire.
"You have a lot of practice at this?"
"Oh, more than you could imagine." Rapunzel laughed, watching the bundle of tinder she'd been working on starting to burn as it caught the sparks from the flint she'd been using.
"…You aren't saying anything, so I'm assuming that's normal for Scarlet." The woman in question had already made herself quite comfortable on the blanket next to them, the liquid in the large bottle of alcohol she was caressing already noticeably depleted.
"Hah hah… well, you had to find out sometime, but all of us on the Pioneer squad have a few *ahem* vices of our own."
Scarlet being a rather enthusiastic drinker definitely didn't match the mental image he'd had for who he'd thought had been a serene, refined warrior woman, but he sure wasn't going to fault her for enjoying her liquor. Given how the daylight was already starting to fade, it probably was after 5:00 anyway. She would've been fast friends with several soul reapers, especially Matsumoto and Hisagi.
Ichigo's ears perked up at the sound of Nel splashing into the river alongside Snow White, before dashing upstream a way. Trying to catch fish by hand sounded inefficient as all hell to him, but looking at the small pile of weakly flopping fish the two women had amassed, it seemed to be working out just fine for the two of them!
"Should we go and help them?"
"Oh, it looks like they've caught plenty of fish. We'll be eating well tonight! …As long as you don't get tired of fish."
"Honestly at this point I'd take anything as long as it was fresh."
Nel and Snow White splashed and sloshed their way out of the river, the last of their prey in their arms, and Rapunzel got to work preparing the fish. Good thing Snow White had a small arsenal of camping utensils and equipment, it was going to make preparing the food a lot more efficient than just putting the fish on sticks and putting those over the fire.
"So many fish… I can't wait…" Snow White's eyes were gleaming with excitement, the white-haired woman pausing to wipe a line of drool away from her mouth.
Snow White wasn't the only one ready to eat. Ichigo choked on the air as Nel bounced over, the thin rags she wore clinging to her shapely body.
Her clothes, for as little as they amounted to counting as such, were soaked through, and God damn, he had never fought as hard for anything in his life as he did now; mustering up every last bit of willpower in his body to keep his head pointed any direction other than where Nel was standing.
"Uh, N-Nel? Don't you think you should go dry off?"
"Hmm? Ichigo, what are you- !" Contrary to what he'd been expecting, Nelliel did not in fact squeal or shriek in mortification. The busty Arrancar froze on the spot, realizing that while her tattered rags had been suitable swimwear, she didn't exactly have a change of clothes available.
"Snow White? Scarlet? Do either of you have-a" Rapunzel began, before Snow White took a break from salivating over the sizzling fish to pass a spare poncho to Nel.
"Here, put this on."
Nel's response was a muttered 'thank you,' before she vanished from sight in a burst of static, before reappearing less than a minute later, the poncho covering the essentials while her threadbare clothes were held loosely in one arm.
…Was it weird that he suddenly became acutely aware that Nelliel was wearing nothing at all underneath the faded white poncho? It might've been a large piece of cloth, but Nel was both taller and MUCH bustier than Snow White, her chest stretching the front of the fabric far enough that it rode up almost dangerously high on her wide, smooth thighs.
"Sorry, I don't have anything else you can change into. I'm assuming whatever circumstances led to you meeting Rapunzel didn't involve giving you a chance to pack a change of clothes?"
"Unfortunately not," Nel sighed, running her hands over the old garment.
"Mmm. That's what I thought. You'll have to wait until you arrive at the Ark to get proper clothes."
…He was going to focus on something else now. Anything at all would be a welcome distraction.
The fish? Maybe, but Rapunzel was handling that on her own well enough, manning several camping stoves at once. What about Scarlet? She'd been quiet up till now, sipping her booze in silence. …Meh, he'd be better off checking in with Rapunzel.
"You need any help, Rapunzel?"
"Hmm? Oh, that's kind of you to offer, but I don't need any. The first several fish should be ready to eat any minute now!"
And that announcement couldn't have come a moment too soon. Snow White looked ready to dive headlong into the campfire to grab her fish!
After having his life completely turned on its head a few days ago, sitting around the fire with Nel and the Pioneer squad made it feel like some normalcy had returned to his life, even it was only a tiny flicker of the life he'd known.
The fish wasn't bland, but it wasn't exactly restaurant quality either. He wasn't sure what kind of fish it was as his knowledge of American freshwater fish was entirely nonexistent, but it tasted good enough. The meager amount of seasoning Rapunzel had on hand improved the flavor a tad, and after several days of hoping that the age-old preserved food he'd scrounged up didn't make him sick as a dog, the fresh fish was a welcome change.
Finishing first, he left the quartet of women to their dinner, heading down to the river. It wasn't like he was going to skinny dip or anything, but having access to fresh water at least meant he could wash some of the dirt and grime off. Wading into the river up to his shins, Ichigo cupped some water in his hands.
'It's been pretty low priority up till now, but… ugh. I swear, one of the first things I do when I get to the Ark is find a place to take a long shower,' Ichigo grumbled, wrinkling his nose. His last shower had been, what, three or four days ago? Between all the bleeding, sweating, and running he'd done since then, he was starting to smell pretty rank.
'At least the water feels good,' Ichigo sighed, splashing a handful of cold water on his face. Shrugging his Shihakushō partially off and letting the top half pool around his waist, Ichigo continued splashing water on himself until he was confident he'd removed the surface level grime that had been clinging to his skin.
'We've got a good fire going, so it shouldn't take long to dry off…' He took his seat back at the campfire, his thoughts trailing off when he realized that everyone was staring at him.
"What? Something on my face?" Okay, so maybe he was playing with fire here, but it wasn't like he was trying to put on a show on purpose. It was going to take at least a few minutes to dry off from the brief rinsing he'd given himself, and he wasn't going to cover up now when that was just going to get the rest of his Shihakushō damp.
…Okay, this was a secret he'd take to his grave, but it was pretty damn flattering seeing four pairs of eyes from four incredibly attractive women locked onto his bare chest. Even if he did realize after a moment that what Nel was actually looking at were the scars left from where Byakuya had stabbed him all those months ago. Man, that felt like ages ago, even if in reality it had been the opposite. It was strange to think that not even six months ago he hadn't even known that the Soul Society was a thing.
Nel's attention returned to her fish- her third fish- once it became clear that Ichigo's scars were from an old, long-healed wound. Snow White shook her head as if to clear any unwanted thoughts away before turning her attention back to her food as well, her brow furrowing in consternation at the realization that she might have to race Nel for the last couple of grilled fish.
Scarlet's eyebrows had risen up almost to her hairline, and as she stared at him, she took an appreciative swig from the bottle she'd been nursing all evening. He couldn't tell if the pink on her cheeks was from the alcohol or from her appreciation.
And Rapunzel…
The nun was sitting frozen in place, her whole body vibrating from how hard she was trembling as she stared at him, eyes practically bulging out of their sockets.
'I know I'm playing with fire here, but… damn, I'm starting to see why Matsumoto likes teasing people so much.' Hey, it was either get embarrassed and cover up; and he had no intentions of doing so till he was good and ready to, or...
"Ahem! Rapunzel, I do believe thou art behaving quite crudely to our guests." Or he could just wait for Rapunzel's teammates to call her out for staring. The woman in question swallowed heavily, wrenching her eyes away from his shirtless form while Scarlet laughed softly.
"M-my apologies, Ichigo. I know it's m-most inappropriate to be staring so shamelessly. I just… ooh… A real man… Not some picture in a magazine, but flesh and blood. And muscle, so much muscle…" Rapunzel's face grew a deeper shade of red with each word
"…Someone should probably stop her before she passes out," Ichigo deadpanned now that Rapunzel was on the edge of hyperventilating.
'I had to have been imagining that, because I swear her pupils just turned into hearts…' A trick of the light, it had to be. Rapunzel's sky blue eyes were unchanged.
"I do believe the situation warrants a distraction. A toast, perhaps? To celebrate finding new friends in these harsh, empty lands?" Scarlet offered, raising a new bottle.
'…I think Goat-chin would be jealous of her tolerance for alcohol. She already finished an entire bottle on her own!' Ichigo couldn't help but be amazed as Scarlet passed around the second bottle she'd produced from somewhere to her friends and Nel. When it reached his hands…
"I'll pass, thanks. I'm good with water."
"Ichigo! Stalwart companions do not toast their victories with mere water!" Scarlet chided, sounding downright affronted at the notion, waggling the bottled at him once more.
"No, no, it's not that. It's just… I'm not old enough to drink." Granted, the collapse of every major nation on the planet meant that laws governing appropriate drinking ages no longer existed, but still. He was Japanese and he was sticking with what felt comfortable.
"P-pardon?" The bottle of booze remained locked in place; Scarlet's arm frozen where it was, the swordswoman staring at him in surprise. Ichigo was vaguely aware that Nel and Snow White had paused in their feasting, while Rapunzel had gone deathly still.
"I said I'm not old enough to drink. …Is that such a surprise?"
"O-oh! Well… I admit that thou do appear rather youthful, but the way thou carried thyself in battle against those Raptures… Bravery, nay, confidence is not something that can be faked. And… pardon me for saying so, but thou do sport an impressive warriors build."
As far as reasoning went, that wasn't the worst logic he'd heard. He couldn't exactly fault Scarlet for misjudging his age considering some of the teenage hoodlums he and Chad had fought in their early days together looked less like middle schoolers and more like thirty-year-old street punks. Scarlet thinking he was older than he looked beat being automatically labeled a delinquent, at least.
"Well… my apologies, Ichigo. I'll not offer liquor to one who has no intentions of imbibing. Though we are all adults here, and none of us would scold you for-"
"I'm not. An adult, I mean. I don't even have a driver's license."
"…Eh?" The half-full bottle fell from Scarlet's nerveless hands, and would've clattered onto the ground to spill its contents had Ichigo not caught it just in time.
Nel's reaction to the news was subtle; she stopped munching on her fourth fish momentarily, chewing slowly as she turned to look at him, before resuming. He wasn't that surprised by her lack of reaction; knowing her she'd probably already suspected as much since he'd revealed that he was actually a human.
Snow White's reaction, in contrast, was far more vocal. The fish she'd been gnawing at slipped from her grasp, tumbling down into the dirt as Snow White choked on the fish bone she'd abruptly inhaled. After a moment of hacking, wheezing, and pounding at her chest to dislodge the bone from her throat, she let out a despairing wail at the sight of her dirt-covered half-eaten fish.
But it wasn't her reaction that caught Ichigo off guard.
No, that would be the guttural, soul-scarring wheeze of horror that Rapunzel let out as the nun shot to her feet, ashen-faced. Ichigo had to crane his head back to keep his forehead from bonking into Rapunzel's as she grabbed him by the shoulders, a manic look in her eyes.
"T-that's a… funny joke, Ichigo. It IS a joke, isn't it? Ichigo? ICHIGO?" Rapunzel's laughter couldn't have been more forced if someone had been holding a gun to her head.
"It's not a joke. I only turned 16 a few months ago."
Rather than the horrified wheeze she'd let out seconds earlier, this time Rapunzel's breath left her in a panicked shriek so high-pitched it had Ichigo wincing as she rushed towards the river at a speed even Yoruichi would've been impressed by.
There was an almighty splash as Rapunzel belly-flopped into the river, the crashing of her near half-ton frame into the river breaking the awkward silence that had befallen their camp.
"Rapunzel?! What on earth are you doing?!"
"W-wash away… I have to wash away my sins! I'm a FILTHY, UNCLEAN SINNER!" The blonde wailed, frantically throwing water over herself, again and again until she was drenched to the bone.
Scarlet finally took her booze back from him, taking a shaky gulp from the bottle.
Ichigo couldn't stop the amused snort from escaping as Nel earned herself an angry growl from Snow White, the two women starting an impromptu game of tug of war over the last of the grilled fish.
It was a hell of a sight to end the day on, but going forward… At least he was pretty sure things wouldn't ever get boring!
(((Hueco Mundo, AWOL Substitute)))
"You really think that Nnoitra guy is going to tell us anything useful once we get our hands on him. Sounds to me like he's the kinda guy who likes toyin' with his prey."
"Captain Zaraki, I'll thank you to speak with more tact around poor Orihime."
"Hey, I'm just sayin' the truth. Me speakin' all nice isn't going to change what happened."
"I-it's not a bid deal… I'm just worried. Captain Unohana, is there anything that the Soul Society can do to find where Ichigo went?"
"We'll certainly try. Ichigo Kurosaki's absence represents a great loss for the Soul Society. That being said, Captain Zaraki's words have merit to them. This… Nnoitra Gilga," Unohana's calm features furrowed into a frown that vanished as quickly as it had formed.
"This Nnoitra Gilga does not seem like the kind of man who would willingly tell us anything useful. I believe several of your friends are nearby, as is Captain Kurotsuchi. For all his… many faults, the man is the Soul Society's foremost scientific mind for a reason. I highly doubt that the device Nnoitra used to send Ichigo away was of his own making, so without other leads, the only thing we can do is bring the matter up with him and former captain Urahara."
Retsu Unohana didn't miss the shiver that passed through Orihime at the mention of 12th Division Captain. She didn't blame the poor girl.
"Ah, that's no fun! Can't you feel that spiritual pressure he's fighting?! How come that bastard gets an Espada to fight while I'm stuck lookin' for someone to swing my sword at?"
Unohana sighed, continuing to lead the odd trio through the spacious halls of Laz Noches. The sooner they reached Captain Kurotsuchi the better.
…That was probably the first time in the Soul Society's history anyone had ever said such a thing.
Notes:
This chapter was by far the most heavily revised and edited chapter I have worked on for this story to date, and the end result was WAY different than what I originally had planned. I removed an entire fight sequence that would have pitted Ichigo against a Grave Digger, removed a few scenes early on because they were more humorous and didn't fit the serious tone of the first half of the chapter, and struggled for a while with how to get the talk to feel 'right' between Ichigo and Nelliel. I'm satisfied with how the chapter turned out in the end, but I'm still quite frustrated that it took so long to get out. Anyways, on to my less serious notes; AKA the random thoughts.
Also removed from Ichigo's fight scene (if it can be called that) were several Metal Gear references. Cut because I felt that they didn't match the tone, even though Metal Gear Solid as a series existed at this point in time (MGS 1 came out in 1998, Bleach pre-TYBW takes place in 2001.)
Originally, Ichigo would've fought Loud Mouth and then Grave Digger. Cut Grave Digger because the Loud Mouth fight accomplished what I needed; and having a second big boss fight would've been redundant.
The conversation between Ichigo and Nel regarding her mask got me thinking... How the fuck does Findorr exist? I know this has probably been brought up a number of times in the fandom before, but unless his ACTUAL mask is just the little bit around his eyes, his whole power of chipping away the mask directly contradicts Nel's broken mask = child form thing. Eh, I'm probably overthinking it. It wouldn't surprise me if it's the first one; that his actual mask is only the bit around his eye.
Non Nikke players: Yes, that is how Scarlet talks. I like her as a character even if actually writing her is annoying because I keep having to revise the sentences she speaks to make sure I get that flowery language of hers right. That being said, I like the 'drunk auntie' of Nikke too much to lessen her role because of that.
Rapunzel and her friends have also deliberately not told Ichigo that they were locked out of the Ark. Everyone who knows Ichigo knows he would not take that news well.
Chuckles/Loud Mouth is an existing Rapture enemy in-game. Searching 'Loud Mouth Nikke will bring up its page on the Nikke wiki, including an image of exactly what it looks like. Alternatively, you can also go on YouTube and lookup the Chapter 22 cutscene from Nikke; as this is one of the rare animated segments in Nikke and shows a Loud Mouth in action.