Bleach: The Alternate Tale

by blackout2010

We all know that Ichigo Kurosaki was a human who became a Shinigami, but what would happen if he was always a Shinigami when the events of bleach happened, perhaps an altered story. Very minor crossover with Sakura Wars. A/U A/T. Contains incest in later parts.

22. infilTraitors: Imperial code

Author's note: This chapter brings the end to Arc 3: Clearing the name arc. I hope you enjoy the final battles. I don't own Bleach that belongs to Tite Kubo. This chapter was greatly influenced by Daisuke Ishiwatari's 'Imperial Code'. Merry Christmas you all. Here's to hoping I finish by next year! (^v^)/

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(OST: Bud light Real men of genius)

Blackout2010: Bleach The Alternate Tale presents: Real people of genius.

Gin: Real people of geeniuuus!

Aizen: Today we salute you (points dramatically). The various people that make up the audience.

Kyoraku: All the various people that make up the audience~!

Yamamoto: It's because of you, that otherwise unsung heroes, not only get there fanfare put on full blast, but played on the loudest speaker...this side of the galaxy.

Yumichika: Better get some crackin' headphones!

Kenpachi: You allow crazed individuals a chance to express themselves, and then give feedback ranging from positive…to downright cynical.

Hichigo: Let me have what the author's smoking!

Byakuya: AU. High school. Time travel and more. Nothing escapes your unquenchable appetites for good quality work; except Mary sues.

Mayuri: I don't believe in Perfection~!

Ukitake: Come rain, sleet or shine. You will always find a place to pop a squat and read some hard core fanfiction. Because that is how you roll.

Isshin: One more chapter before sun up!

Ichigo: So crack open another chapter in your list of Fanfics, you readerous-maniacus type A; because, there's no one, quite like you, out there in the sea called the internet.

Kisuke: All the various people that make up the audience~!

Uryu: Bleach is brought to you by Tite Kubo, while BTAT is written by J.L.O.

(OST: end)

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Infil-traitors: Imperial code!

(Final day: Day five)

The steady marching of feet rang all throughout the execution grounds. Low murmurs and suspicious glances were cast between some of the lower Shinigami soldiers. For them it had been one week through the understory of hell whose dirty roads were paved with uncertainty, betrayal and death. Friends fighting friends, family fighting family, all for the sake of a rebellion that not a single one knew was real or just a mass hysteria. The many men and women looked to their Taicho and Fuku-taicho's seeking some kind of guidance, but all were met with the same distant stare, which was filled with nights of contemplation and days searching for traitors and answers.

"Well, well…" a voice piped up as it's owner stopped the escort guard and looked up to the fearsome mountain above him. His compatriot Byakuya Kuchiki stopped as well, his hand holding the crimson tether that reached to their captive's choker "You can certainly feel the electricity in the air. The anticipation of the kill always gets my blood roiling. Though, I still can't believe that were going to have such a grizzly event on a beautiful day, like this. Such a shame." The silver haired man said with a hint of sarcasm

"If you are done with your poetic gawking, Ichimaru-Taicho, I would appreciate to get this plan over with so we can finish the Ryoka." Byakuya commanded despite his inner feelings of disgust, of how easily the man showed his remorselessness especially to his sister.

Not that he was brother-in-law of the year.

The man gave a tug on the woman's cord forcing her to take a step "Let us put this farce to rest."

The barefoot woman in white stumbled forward. Her violet eyes staring demurely at the symbol of six on Byakuya's back, her gaze faltered as she followed silently behind her brother, remaining silent to allow herself to keep pace into the darkness. She remained silent under Ichimaru's chatter, her heart not having the strength to embolden her spirit. Her spirit which was crushed from witnessing the death of innocent people one too many times, she shouldn't be the one who continued taking their lives.

The death squad soon began it's march up to the Sokyoku where justice would finally be served.

(Ichigo and co.)

"All right, ladies and gentlemen welcome to the end of days!" Kisuke said dramatically with his paper fan wiped out like salesman ready to make a killing from his latest cash cow. The man was promptly shut up by Senna diving forward comically, introducing her golden Shakujo into the back of the genius's cranium.

"Don't say it like that, ass-hat!" the woman exclaimed, since the first thing she didn't want to hear in the morning, after such a great night's sleep, was the reminder that they might all die today, even if it was true. For her you had to stay optimistic.

The blond shop owner quickly latched onto Yoruichi's shoulder snuggling his head against her bosom protectively with childishly tears "Yo-chan!" he cried out in a toddler like voice "Did you see that, your ungrateful second student bopped me in the noggin and gave me a booboo. Will you kiss it and make it better?" the man's eyes then sparkled dangerously, and a large grin stretched across his face, as he switched into pervert mode "Or we could do a little more intimate healing, my lovely goddess of flash…"

The man's efforts only got him a hearty laugh from most of the group, a playful kiss from Yoruichi on the impact point, and Senna banging her weapon into another part of his anatomy. Pushing the hair out of his eyes, Ichigo took a minute to glance at all his friends and comrades who were here, embedding their smiling faces or playful antics in his mind. The edge of Ichigo's lips tugged upward invisibly 'We're gonna make it.' he silently vowed as he lost his smile and put his serious face on for what lay ahead "Alright guys, let's get this show on the road. Renji, come on let's go."

"Yeah, yeah leader man." The red head grumbled to himself, as they went for the exit and get a kick start on things due to the long flight ahead.

"Shinjiro-san," Senna said as she gained the Yamato swordsman's attention "let's do our best out there!" She fist pumped already set, prepared and ready to go for the mission of fighting to save and rescuing of Rukia.

"Someone's fired up today." The samurai mused calmly ignoring Kisuke's moan of 'What about me?' before turning to his wife and kissing her on the lips, his brown eyes revealing trace amounts of nervousness to her. "I'll be waiting Subaru, so don't do anything too risky." He said as he gave a small reassuring squeeze on her hand

The spy nodded and brought up her face mask "I will. Remember to do your best, Ichigo-sama and Shaolin are counting on us." The woman then looked back when she felt someone's hand on her shoulder, which turned out to be the goddess of flash.

"Come on, we gotta go meet my bumbling little bumblebee." She said cheerily, wondering how she's been and how she was gonna have fun playing with her.

(11:00 Sokyoku hill)

"Geez, not much of a turn out." Marechiyo Omeada complained as he looked at who else was topside with him. From his spot, as the second squad's representative, he saw old man Yamamoto himself standing just below the execution scaffold one hand on his cane Zanpaktou while his other hand stroked his beard gently, a gesture that the representative mistook for senility instead of the man working his mind in an attempt to discern where the enemy was going to be coming in from. Waiting by the top of the stairwell was Nanao and her Taicho, Kyoraku who had said that Kiyone and Sentaro were helping Ukitake up the hill.

The gelatinous man looked back and sighed, "This sucks." He said morosely "Why couldn't I be down there with Soifon-chan and the rest of the squad?" He then found his question immediately answered by his considerable ego "Oh right, grand executions and stuff are usually Taicho only eyes. I guess that means she's ready to step down and make me the new leader," the man then smiled wickedly, as things started to come together in his mind "then we'll have our marriage once the rebellions over and things have settled down a bit, then finally get a little busy in having some kids. Hmmm, maybe four or five rascals, haha yeah that the sign of a good marriage (1)! Yes sir-ree, I got the good life ahead of me." He laughed perversely with his plan now in full swing, he just had to account for two things. One would be his nuisance in-laws Taiga and Kujo, but he was sure he could handle them, given time. The second would be that ever vexing upstart Ichigo. Oh, how he couldn't wait to wring the man's neck and put him in his place permanently before this battle was over. 'Come on, strawberry. Come and let me smoosh you.'

(Soifon's position in the forest)

"All right, I want everyone to listen up." Soifon commanded, turning back around from various foliage before her to face the collected squad, who were standing on various tree limbs awaiting instructions "As I'm sure you've heard, there has been numerous rumors of dissention as of late." When the men and women nodded some allowing themselves to whisper to their neighbor "I am going to tell you this now, today we put an end to the conflict that is destroying us, that is also why I want you to do exactly as I order when I order it. No questions asked." She turned back around to face the forest "I've seen our ranks, they are considerably thin, I'd gauge we are only about 60% total strength and our enemy has the power that rivals my own. That is why I'm going to appoint one of you, should I become indisposed of, in charge. That person will be acting Taicho until I return. You will follow his or her orders as if I said them myself, am I understood?"

"Yes, ma'am." The Shinigami said in one voice

"Good." She said coldly ending the conversation, as she lifted her head up to the sky. Her eyes closed shut feeling a change in the breeze 'It begins…'

(Unohana's position ahead of the center)

Retsu Unohana walked through the center of her assembled squad, she had the battle capable of her division divided in two with one half facing towards the Sokyoku and the other in the maze leading up to them, sandwiched between the two was all the expert healers, who would serve as battery to heal anyone injured on either side. The woman ended her walking abruptly to look back at the execution ground "It's almost time." She whispered bitterly

"Taicho! T-Taicho!" the panicked voice of Isane called out to her Taicho, as she ran as fast as she could

"Calm yourself, breath. Now, tell me what is the matter Isane?" the doctor asked concernedly, seeing the panicked expression on her Fuku-taicho's face

The silver haired giant in took some air and spoke in a more rational sounding tone "Approaching from the south is an army of Shinigami! We're under attack!"

Unohana frowned at the thought of having to fight Ichigo, but she would and knew that she must for the sake of the afterlife, even kami forbid fight her beloved sensei "Lead the way." She replied as she headed off to fight the threat to the south.

(Yoruichi and Subaru)

As the stealth pair dashed through the green forest having separated from the other three who moved to the east, the weaker of the two called out to the stronger one "So Shihoin-san, how do you plan on defeating Shaolin?"

"Well Bandit-chan, to answer your question with my own two hands!" she replied with a confident smirk as she jumped from the next branch to the one after, sensing the pessimism she then spoke more seriously "Don't worry. I already know what you'd ask of me, and all I can promise is that I will try not to kill her, but just remember we do need to stop her, before she does too much damage. If push comes to shove she'll fight to the death." The ebony woman then looked back at her pale companion "But then you already know that."

"Yeah…" She said guiltily, not wanting it to come to that since she was doing all of this for her sake, even with her she constant success in undermining her.

"I know it's difficult, but bear with me, ok? If you're ardent in ensuring she stays safe then just do what I say. While I deal with her, you make sure no one leaves to either help her fight or get reinforcements. Last thing we need is for us to get swarmed and when I cut loose to even the odd I take her out by accident. So stay focused and be prepared for a hard fight." The woman commanded as she looked back now seeing quite a bit of the color black, meaning waiting Onimitsukido. 'An open invitation by these guys? This sloppy ambush plan can't really be you doing, right Soifon?'

(Kyoraku)

The rugged captain of squad eight looked on as captain Byakuya Kuchiki and Gin Ichimaru walked the somber prisoner to the scaffold, he had kept an unreadable expression on his face as they passed but once they were gone, he looked back to see Ukitake approaching the stairwell beside him was Kiyone and Sentaro, carrying the device Yoruichi spoke of, the one that had the capability to destroy the Sokyoku. Shunsui made a motion with his hand signaling for them to halt and power the device up, then they'd make a dash for Rukia if the traitor's didn't show up.

(Urahara)

The three warriors moved as quickly as possible through the forest's under grove, they had sensed the spiritual power of the Sokyoku rise with each second "Get ready you two the funs about to start!" the blond manager yelled as he saw the clearing up ahead where they would be fighting it out, or more precisely sabotaging.

The woman of the group looked back to see the large halberd in the center loom before the scaffold in which Rukia was probably being set to be impaled upon 'Don't worry Rukia, we won't let you down.' She thought as she continued to keep pace

(Renji)

"Set me down right there!" the fiery red head yelled to his airborne commander, who glided them unto the stairwell not too far from the summit. The two men looked up as they felt the spiritual pressure above them rise higher "You feel that?" the man asked rhetorically as the pressure began to press lightly against their body for a split second before fading back into its siphoning sequence "It's almost time. I should be up there in no time flat, but you're gonna need to fly around the back to get to Rukia, so you better get moving."

Ichigo merely turned around and grabbed a firmer hold on the Tentoken "Just be sure you're prepared to catch her and run like hell, we're only gonna have a few seconds." He said after a pause

The Fuku-taicho turned to where he was facing the ascending steps "Shinigami aren't allowed to fail. Our success doesn't depend on me catching her." He took a step forward as he started to make his climb up "It depends on you protecting her."

Ichigo watched the man out of his peripheral, a smirk working on his face "Way to take responsibility, Fuku-taicho Abarai." And leapt off the mountain to fly up and save the captive Kuchiki.

(Yamamoto)

"It is time." The ancient Shinigami said as he banged his cane, signifying the start of the execution. With the signal given Byakuya walked with Rukia until both were underneath the scaffold, the man tugged slightly on one end while Gin tugged on the other. The chocker around Rukia's neck came undone, and the woman turned around to face the gathered captains and lieutenants. Ichimaru flash stepped off to go 'join' his division, leaving the brother and sister pair a moment of privacy.

"Lord Brother…" the small woman whispered to her brother, who let his gaze falter to the woman "Please don't look so sad."

The man closed his eyes and turned away "I don't know what you're talking about." He replied somberly "Please make peace with yourself and don't look at me." 'I am unworthy of it…'

The lady in white nodded sadly "Yes…lord brother."

The tormented sixth Taicho moved away from the condemned as Yamamoto performed a small Bakudo, forcing the woman's arms apart. Two small white cubes sprang from the ground up to the height of the woman's arms while a third one went up to about her kneecap. Rukia took in a small breath of air as she felt her body move upward towards her demise.

"Release the Sokyoku!" the old man commanded after the woman reached the top. The gigantic halberd levitated a few meters off the ground, and the spiritual energy inside of it started to envelop the weapon. The cloud of energy turned a crimson red and soon erupted outward as the weapon changed it's appearance in the large explosion. The large flames contorting into a spherical shape until it started to slowly move outward and two large fiery wings shot away from the body, while a bird's beak became visible from the slow raising of the neck. The gigantic legendary phoenix Zanpaktou opened it's mouth and let out a loud piercing cry as it stood triumphantly over the plateau.

The Sou-taicho looked back towards Rukia with a serious expression and opened his mouth, muttered the words that was on so many people's minds, the mind's of both enemy and friend, the words that signaled the beginning and end of the conflict "Now let the Sokyoku fall!"

The blazing phoenix's eyes slitted as it sighted Rukia, with another roar the beast charged forward intending to incinerate the regretless woman when from the sky a loud yell was heard "GETSUGA TENSHO!"

As the words were uttered, an equal large beam of light seemingly appeared from nowhere and crashed into the bird knocking it backwards. As the creature shook it's head to steady itself, a panicked expression ran unto the face of most of the individuals gathered. As someone or something just attacked and knocked back the single strongest weapon the Soul Society had in its collective arsenal.

"Never thought I'd find myself here," a familiar voice said beside Rukia Kuchiki. The raven haired woman, in disbelief, looked over her shoulder to see the smirking face of Ichigo Kurosaki standing atop the white metal frame looking over the masses. He then turned his gaze on the bound girl "or you, Rukia."

"What are you doing here?" Rukia could only ask in wonder

The shrieking cry of the large flaming bird warranted Ichigo's immediate attention. The man gripped Zangetsu tightly and focused his energy to fire off another beam, when he saw some kind of noose wrap around the bird's neck restraining it. Everyone looked back to see Jushiro Ukitake and Shunsui Kyoraku standing together with some kind of strange contraption, whose extensions were tangled around the Sokyoku.

"What is the meaning of this you two!" Yamamoto declared seeing his two loyal pupil's unexpected act of treachery

"Sorry old man"

"But we need to do this."

The two men placed their blades into the slots sending energy into the ropes which tightened around the flaming bird. The phoenix struggled against it until it slowly disappeared from the sky, leaving the halberd which broke in half. From the stairs Renji Abarai appeared which Ichigo took note of, quickly picking Rukia up much to her protest he jumped off the scaffold, high into the air and cocked his arm back "Here RENJI CATCH!" he yelled as he tossed the woman who was now screaming knowing firsthand how she was gonna be getting down.

The woman let out a blood curdling scream as she soared through the air and crashed into Renji who jumped backward sending him tumbling some ways down the stairs. Ichigo landed in front of the two semi-friendly Taichos, and looked back pleased still sensing Renji's spiritual power. "So what made you two decide to help?"

"Don't get the wrong idea sonny." Kyoraku said as he stepped past Ichigo "We wanted to see what your intentions were, we still haven't quite decided yet what to do with you."

Jushiro stepped forward and continued speaking as he grabbed his weapon "However, we do think your innocent. So we'll let Rukia remain at large until we have a solid story for what's been going on." The man then looked at their furious teacher "It seems this will be difficult, Shunsui."

"Tell me about it."

"I'm very disappointed in you two." Yamamoto said sadly seeing his two star pupils, doing one of things he explicitly taught them not to do. Obstruct true justice by defending the traitors. "As Sou-taicho I am ordering any and all loyal Shinigami here to capture Abarai and Rukia Kuchiki. I will deal with these two."

As the declaration was made the three Taicho's disappeared in a burst of speed, leaving only Byakuya, Nanao, Kiyone, Sentaro, Omeada, and Ichigo topside.

"It seems we are not needed here replacement representative for squad two, Ichigo Kurosaki." Nanao said as she pushed her glasses up "Do as you like. I need to go deal with all the fighting going on below."

"Of course, Madam vice-president Nanao." Ichigo answered as he pulled Zangetsu and held it in front of him, as Byakuya Kuchiki scowled seeing the face of the man who was responsible for all of this.

Kiyone looked at the guy she once had a crush on and looked over to Omeada who was looking positively furious at this point, the woman grabbed Sentaro and wiped around in front of Ichigo "Me and stupid here, will take care of Fuku-taicho Omeada!" she said cheerfully as she flash stepped to where the man was before grabbing and disappearing with him.

'Damn and I just had the perfect excuse to kill him…' Ichigo frowned bitterly, since the energetic woman didn't even give him a chance to answer. He watched as the emotionally distant nobleman, drew his sword and looked coldly at the male Kurosaki.

(Yoruichi's team)

The two females continued to run forward, already sensing the many officers of the Onimitsukido around them, but were perplexed when none of them so much as made a move to either attack them or impede their path. Only after passing into a large clearing did they see their target, who was standing above them with a curious look.

"Well if my eyes don't deceive me, my little bee's wearing a captain's Haori. They haven't started giving them out for free have they?" Yoruichi asked with a cocky smirk as she tilted her head bemused at the marvel she was seeing 'Guess she really did manage to take things over, she's grown up well.'

The woman in charge tilted her head in their direction "Yoruichi." She said warmer than either woman had anticipated, the captain's gray eyes then moved over to her companion "Subaru." She acknowledged with another nod, which was met with the woman closing her eyes tightly really wanting to disappear.

The cat woman seeing the tension didn't like it one bit "Let's not have a family feud here." She said casually her eyes dancing between the two of them, and decided to change the subject "So I couldn't help, but notice that none of your boys have so much as lifted a finger on our way here." She stated getting the captain to shift her eyes away from the backstabbing sibling.

"Yes, because I was expecting you."

"So the others weren't hearing stuff. You were the one at the cave yesterday."

"Correct." Soifon admitted unashamed as she removed her Haori, she then looked at her clustered soldier and gave a harsh glare "You are all too follow my last two orders which are as thus, you are to leave this area immediately while I deal with Yoruichi, and the second." She then pointed directly at Subaru "She's your temporary commander until I've returned, any orders she gives are to be taken as my own, am I understood?" she ordered shocking the two women who now didn't know what was entirely going on.

"Yes, Ma'am." A resounding cry rang out amongst the leaves

The captain then looked at Subaru with a hint of mirth "I understand. Don't worry about it. We can talk when this is over." She then looked back at her opponent, while still speaking with her "Just make sure Ichigo wins."

Subaru looked surprised for a second and despite the chosen words, allowed herself to find contentment in knowing that Ichigo had managed to reconcile with her. "Yoruichi-san good luck," She whispered and then spoke much louder "Squad two follow me, I'll inform you of your objective along the way!"

With her order given, the woman and all the other squad two and Onimitsukido members vacated, in a swirl of speed, leaving the teacher and student alone. "I certainly wasn't expecting this from you. You hate traitors like me with every fiber of your being. What prompted this change?"

Now Shaolin's smirk grew wider as it seemed to almost promise pain "If you are asking what changed well…" she narrowed her eyes "maybe I'll tell you when you tell me what really made you leave all those years ago. But that can wait because right now, I have fifty-two years of pent up frustration, annoyance, and anger. I trust Yoruichi-sama; you can take responsibility for your actions!"

The ebony woman scoffed and shook her head in mock disappointment "Fifty plus years and, you still haven't figured out I'm a really free spirited woman? Responsibility's kind of a no-no word for me." She then raised her fists up ready to take her on "But, I guess as long as you make this look good for our real enemy, I'll play along and agree to your demands."

"You shouldn't play Yoruichi. I'm much stronger than last time. And maybe just maybe, I've grown even strong enough to have surpassed you." The woman kneeled down with her hands at her side, taking precise aim "So with that possibility in mind…" and then kicked off the tree, springing towards the woman with her arms cocked back "If you don't take this seriously you're gonna die!"

The ebony woman deflected the punch, and returned with one of her own, which the woman forced upward with her free hand. Soifon using the opening she created tried to knee the woman in the stomach, but the Nekomata used the extension to leap over the woman kicking her in the back of the head, while she landed softly on some nearby trees "Oooh, I think I have plenty of reason to play, after all I'm ahead!"

"Not for long!" Soifon answered fiercely as she disappeared in flash step, reappearing momentarily behind the ex-captain. Yoruichi quickly wheeled around and struck the woman, only for her to find it was a mirage of some kind. The soft tapping of shoes made Yoruichi look back in the first direction just in time to see her protégé's fist strike her stomach.

With a successful strike, the Chinese captain struck with her other fist and quickly spun around her leg using the centripetal force of the rotation to try and take the head off the woman. The attacking captain's eyes widened that now it was Yoruichi that had disappeared in a mirage. Shaolin turned to her side and saw the woman smiling like everything was a-ok. "So when did you switch with the Cicada?"

"Oh, right before your initial hit against me. It seems my cicada lasts longer than yours. So I'm still ahead." The woman answered chipperly, while the captain scoffed

"I hate to say it, but it seems that staying off the battlefield as long as you have, doesn't seem to have dulled your fighting ability." The captain then pulled out her sword "However! It seems that you didn't bother to bring your Zanpaktou with you, a mistake on your part." She then lifted it vertical in one hand "Sting all enemies to death, Suzumebachi." She invoked, her weapon shrinking down to a golden talon that wrapped around her middle finger and went up to about her forearm.

Yoruichi tilted her head curiously to the side as she eyed the tool in her little bee's hand "If I didn't know any better I'd say that it got a little bit longer than the last time I saw it."

"Oh, that's not all." The student said sadistically as she disappeared and struck Yoruichi from behind "It also will kill you in two strikes, and has an indefinite time limit." She then leaned closer to her goddess ear "So you better start running."

On cue the goddess of flash separated herself from the killer bee, her nerves feeling the cold sensation of the Homonka mark upon her flesh. Soifon was about to step forward when she heard a loud sonic boom, and couldn't help but look up as a bluish-white beam of energy began to fade in the sky. Her face turned to surprise at who she was feeling. "I-ichigo." She whispered in disbelief. The woman, as she continued to feel the energy, felt the corner of her lips curve upwards into a pleased smile "You're still fighting hard, so I must push myself too." She then turned back to her opponent who was getting away "Stay safe till I return." And disappeared feeling much more inspired to fight harder.

Yoruichi had started up running through the trees again, already feeling Soifon's spiritual pressure back on her heels, most likely having stopped to briefly observe the intense fighting that was going on at the hill. She kept going as fast as she could, using her knowledge of the geographical terrain to find a nice area for her Shunko technique.

"Come on, don't you wanna play?" Shaolin taunted as she followed not too far behind her mentor "It'll be another game of deadly flash tag, just like old times!"

"You're really letting you anger get to you, huh?" the cat woman replied as she reached the next branch and jumped forward while turning around "Too bad that makes you sloppy!" she yelled throwing a bunch of Anken at the girl

Shaolin braced herself as she knocked down whatever blades she could, since there was no way to dodge in the middle of her jump. She managed to block most of the more dangerous ones and was only cut on both her deltoids and once on the outer edge of her thigh. She stopped to land on a branch and closed her eyes to concentrate her spiritual pressure.

The energy started to wrap around one of her arms and both her legs and then erupted outwards in a heat like aura "Now let's see who's faster." The woman said to herself as she utilized her unnamed technique on most of her limbs. She crouched, for but a moment, and then kicked off the tree completely destroying it, as she zoomed forward crashing into Yoruichi like a cannonball. As the pair started to fall to the ground both of them were trading blows back and forth, Shaolin, despite the increase in speed and power, was surprised to see that her mentor was able to keep up so well. As gravity almost made the two combatant crash into the ground, the two separated both sides leaping back to a tree behind them and springing back to connect in the center of a mostly clear area.

Yoruichi, while thoroughly impressed that her student had been able to pick up that technique all on her own, was easily able to see that it was really exhausting her for holding it up for as long as she had been. Still for her it was a major accomplishment on her part and it shone in her eyes how proud she was of her little bee. A sign which wasn't lost on the woman as they broke apart from another violent clash

"You seem enamored by my technique, Yoruichi-sama!" the tired woman yelled from her side of the battlefield, breathing rather heavily, as she lowered the output to just her forearm now. "I've been spending quite a while to get it down as well as I have, though it's still incomplete."

The ebony goddess wiped away some of the blood from her lip "'Your technique?' Do you even have a name for it?"

"I was thinking of calling it 'Nǚshén jiàng' [Chin. Tran: Fall of the goddess/Death of a goddess]!'" she then tilted her head and smiled smugly and spoke with a decent amount of sarcasm, which perked the interest of Yoruichi "I dedicated it to you! Tell me what do you think? Is it to your liking?"

The goddess of flash despite the heat of battle couldn't help but laugh "Ahahaha, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you found the important marble in your collection that was labeled 'sense of humor'! Tell you what, I'm feeling generous, so I'll tell you the REAL name of that technique." She then raised her arm, in a manner that made all the color drain from Shaolin's peach colored face 'no way…'

"It's called…" she said with a huge smile of her own, the golden Reishi colored energy started to swirl around her persons, but unlike Shaolin's it actually covered all her back and shoulders, and simultaneously destroying the outer jacket she had on revealing a stealth force's master uniform just like hers "Shunko." The woman twisted her arm and clenched her fist and swung in Shaolin's general direction, the girl reflexively shielding herself with her arms as an intense light shined brightly and loud roar blared in her now ringing ears.

As the sound of dirt, rock and burning forests settled down. Soifon opened one of her eyes that she had unknowingly closed when threatened with that attack. When she looked in front of her, the arms she had been holding up fell to her side, she stared at the large crater beside her that was easily about ten feet across horizontally. She followed the divide that was less than three feet away from her persons all the way back to Yoruichi who merely had one arm extended outward in her direction.

The woman couldn't help smirking at seeing the look of astonishment and awe on the woman's face, so she decided to mess with her just a little bit "Sorry, I can't control it very well." She said to her student, giving a half-lie since she could exert more control, but it would weaken the ability; since it wasn't that great yet, instead of letting it remain wild and untamed.

"A-amazing." The captain whispered in a tone full of respect and admiration, seeing the destructive force the attack had when utilized by someone with proper knowledge, and giving her a look of how far she still needed to go. She'd been using the technique on the ends of her limbs and only about two or three at max.

But her, she did the technique with half her body and was doing so without any serious fatigue or strain unlike the misinformed and self-proclaimed pioneer in the art of fusing hand to hand with Hoho skills.

Shaolin breathing became a little deeper, as she realized she couldn't really win now, not that it was her primary goal, since her trump card was already in her opponent's skilled hands. But, she couldn't just surrender, as that would go against her pride as a captain and as a person. She just couldn't let someone else win, be it a new recruit to her squad, her teacher and mother figure Yoruichi-sama, or even her boyfriend Ichigo. If they wanted to be able to declare an unquestionable win over her, they had to go the distance, and the student already had just the way to put this grudge to an end and assist Ichigo's cause.

The lighter hued woman back flipped into the air, but as she did she diverted her shunko to her legs to give her the speed necessary for distance involved in her plan. As she landed upon the branches she then created ten or so clones of herself, each an exact replica from the damage she had sustained to the strands of her hair.

"Oh? So you know how to do that too?" Yoruichi mused while the clones rushed forward to deal with the enemy, while the real one ran off.

The goddess of flash, not being able to tell which was the real one, since she knew it was possible to hide oneself amongst their clones, went along with it. As the nearest Soifon reached the woman, Yoruichi utilized her enhanced limbs and kicked the Soifon in the head knocking the woman flat on her back before she disappeared.

'Fake.' She acknowledged as she turned to the next one who was approaching from the side with her identical sister poised to strike with Suzumebachi.

(Soifon)

Running as fast as her limbs could take her; she screeched to a halt and jumped upon the tallest branch that was available. She stretched her arms out catching the branch and used her momentum to flip herself unto the thick branch. Once she was up there she took her sash and threw it around the tree, the yellow clothing anchoring itself to the huge foliage, to somewhat lessen the recoil, but it was definitely no stripe of inverted silver. She then held Suzumebachi in front of her "Never thought I'd show her my Bankai this way." She mused to herself "BANKAI!" she yelled as her weapon started to transform into it's final state "Jakuho Raikoben."

(Yoruichi)

As the last clone disappeared beside her fallen sisters, Yoruichi felt a huge spike in spiritual pressure back the way she had come. With her keen eye sight she spotted Soifon, with some gigantic golden thing, even bigger than the woman herself, propagating from her arm. The Goddess of flash then quickly figured out what was going on between the big distance and the sudden surge in power output.

"Oh crap." She uttered as she saw the woman mouth the words 'Fifty-two year of frustration right here!'

Not wasting a second the goddess of flash ran as fast as she could while the missile flared to life and shot towards the spot the ex-Taicho had been.

The stinger missile continued on it's course for the impact sight screaming at break neck speed, with a desperate Yoruichi trying to clear the area. When the stinger missile collided into the barren earth, a massive explosion rocked the nearby area. From where Soifon was the incoming shockwave was so immense that it destroyed her sash launching her high up into the air, while the dust cloud rampaged forth knocking down everything in it's path.

The flying woman soared in the air as her weapon cracked down into Shikai state, after her vertical acceleration was abruptly ended it was then that she was brought back down by gravity. Straining her eyes against the cutting wind, she turned her body and did her utmost to brace herself as she sped up to the sea of green. A myriad of pain soaked all over her body as she slammed into several tree limbs before finally crashing into a large tree and completely uprooting it as she fell along with it on her streak towards the forest floor.

The Chinese captain strained to keep her eyes open after the rough ride. She felt every nerve in her body screaming out in pain, alerting her exhausted mind to astronomical amount of internal damage she was suffering. Curling a finger, she bit back a shiver and relaxed willing to let herself spend a second to breath before making any more serious moves.

Her damage assessment was thankfully interrupted when she heard a noise. After a blinking of her eyes, and not seeing anything, she tilted her head to look a little more to the right half of the sky when she saw a black dot. A dot, that seemed to be getting closer and closer while the noise kept getting louder and louder.

Straining her eyes upon the moving spot she couldn't help but smile at seeing Yoruichi falling to the ground now.

Alive.

"UUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKK!"

WHAM! The nearby logs blew apart from breaking the fall of the apparently nine lived individual

"(groan)"

Soifon looked forward as she laid spread eagle on the ground, she glanced at the twitching form of the goddess of flash who was clenching her fist to both gather her strength and fight off the pain. "Wel…come…b...ack." The tired student greeted her teacher who tried to push herself off the ground, and managed to successfully get on her knees, but didn't dare try to push anything further than that.

Yoruichi looked at her student incredulously, remembering the last few seconds in which when she had jumped she got caught up in the blast's upwind giving new meaning to uplift "I hate you." The goddess of flash said in a serious manner befitting her exhaustion, though Soifon knew it was just an act.

"And I (huff) forgive you." The captain then moved her arms despite their protest and pushed herself to lean more comfortably against the tree's remains "We really did a number on the forest." She said quietly deciding to have a small conversation after fifty-two years of contempt laid to rest

"We?" Yoruichi quoted with no small measure of disbelief

Feeling her energy begin to restore itself thanks impart to the vast amount of Reiatsu in soul societies' atmosphere, the captain managed to find the energy to pout to her sensei "W-well…Yoruichi-sama's Bankai and profound Shunko skill…would have done much more damage than me."

"ehehehe. I guess you're right." The goddess laughed merrily, as she crawled over to her student and leaned back against the tree putting her arm around her shoulder "So I guess you're going to want some answers, yeah?" the girl merely put her eyes upon the woman silently saying yeah "Well what do you want to know?"

"I want to know why you really did leave," she then looked down at her dirt and sweat covered hands "and why…why Yoruichi-sama did you not take me with you?"

The purple haired woman sighed and launched into her explanation "The reason I left Soul Society is because Kisuke, Tessai and myself were wrongly accused of a crime we didn't commit. Do you remember the incident in which many Taicho and Fuku-taicho like Hirako Shinji suddenly disappeared?" A nod was given "That was it. We were charged with performing dark experiments on them, which is where the rule Shinigami aren't allowed to have hollow powers come from."

"So then you left? But why? How come you couldn't show that you were innocent?"

"Because we were framed by Sosuke Aizen, and were caught by Sou-taicho Yamamoto."

"Aizen-Taicho isn't that kind of person." Soifon pointed out not maliciously, but in a misunderstanding way since it went against his mannerism and profile. Her first suspect and one she would have believed, after switching sides, had been Gin Ichimaru. Sosuke Aizen didn't even make the list for Traitors.

Yoruichi only shook her sadly "It's all a lie Bee. He's been after the Hogyoku, a device that Kisuke made that lets Shinigami and Hollows cross the barrier of power, and right now Rukia Kuchiki has it. That's why he's gone through all this trouble to get it. I know it sounds sketchy, especially coming from me, but it's the honest to goodness truth. He's been using everyone. Me, Kisuke, You, Ichigo, the Sou-taicho, everyone is fair game to him. Most of us are here to stop him, only about two or three are here to save Rukia as well."

"I understand." Shaolin nodded understanding things a bit more "Now I want you to tell me, why it is that you didn't take me with you, when you left. Was it because you thought I was too weak or that I'd get in your way?"

"That thankfully is a really easy question to answer." The woman then pushed herself up to her feet, and offered a hand to the woman who accepted it, but upon standing fell forward and clutched her mentor's shoulder for support. Yoruichi slung the woman's arm around her neck and proceeded to walk towards the next battlefield. "The main reason I didn't take you, was because I wanted you to grow up."

"You wanted me to grow up?" Shaolin said sounding more than a little hurt, since while she did know that maybe she went just a little overboard in her devotion to Yoruichi, she didn't think it came off as childish or immature. It was the way she was raised; to be utterly devoted to even her final breath to the protecting of her goddess's life. It was serious.

"Don't take it the wrong way." Yoruichi answered quickly, cutting off that particular train of thought "It's not that I thought you were childish or annoyance, on contrary I found your constant doting to be a source of endless amusement and thought it was really cute."

"I-it wasn't cute." Soifon said defensively "I meant every word of wanting to protect you. I cared about you significantly."

"You also felt something that I didn't return though." Yoruichi said in a serious tone, letting her golden eyes absorb the tired girl. "All those times you spent blushing, stuttering, and practically kissing the ground I walked on, it's kinda hard to miss someone with a bad case of the love bug."

"W-what? Did I really?" she asked confusedly, she certainly looked up to the goddess, and in a way equated her to something akin to a mother, but she didn't know that from her goddesses' perception it came out as someone in love with her. The smaller woman cheeks heated up a bit "M-maybe I did have an unknowing crush of some kind." She then spoke a little solemner "I guess I never realized it because I just couldn't picture us being anything more than what we were."

Yoruichi winked mischievously and pulled her closer to her as they continued trekking "Well, that, and you can be really thick-headed and stubborn, once you're set on something." She joked, while the other girl deadpanned "But getting back on track, I could see the potential within you. You have the capability to be a smart, strong, courageous woman; and for the most part, you made yourself exactly like I had hoped you would. Well maybe you could do with a bit of fine tuning with your slight hot-cold attitude." The woman grew serious again "But the thing was that you didn't want it for yourself. You wanted it for me. You wanted to use it to serve me for probably the end of eternity or until one of our next reincarnations, whichever came first." She then placed a hand over her heart "I didn't want that for you. Why do you think I told you all those times to just call me 'Yoruichi' not 'Your Excellency lady commander Shihoin', not 'Shihoin-Taicho', not 'Supreme commander Shihoin-dono', still working on 'Yoruichi-sama', just undecorated and informal 'Yoruichi'?"

"I guess maybe because you umm wanted me to loosen up?" Soifon guessed in uncertainty, going with what she had been constantly told by the woman in her younger years.

"Well that too, but mostly because I wanted us to be equals. I didn't want you to stand in front of me, like a human shield ready to take a mortal blow and wind up in an empty unmarked grave, and I didn't want you to stand behind me to give me a weapon as I asked of you, never being allowed to grow strong yourself. I wanted you to stand beside me as an equal, and assist me when I needed it. That's what I ultimately wanted when I took you under my wing back when you were still a little girl. I didn't want you to linger in my shadow, I wanted you to start with someone to look up to for guidance, and use as an example. Then finally follow your own path that you desire to walk." The ebony woman then looked at Soifon and moved a little bit of her hair out of her face, brushing her cheek with her hand "Now do you see my little bee? I didn't mean to 'abandon' you, I was doing what I thought was best. I hope you can understand that."

The gentle gesture took Shaolin by surprise, her mouth hung open as she was unable to form a word. She just continued to stare into her mentor's face, "(sniff) yeah…" she whispered as she felt something cool and wet travel down from her eye to her cheek, she closed her eyes and smiled despite the pretense "I understand completely Yoruichi-sama." She said feeling not at all sad but rather contented "Thank-you for telling me the truth."

"There, there. Come on, stop crying you're a big girl now." The cat woman said amicably as her thumb helped clean the tears from one of her best friend's face "You've really grown up into a splendid Taicho."

"That means a lot coming from you." The girl said as she looked at her mentor, and started to fidget slightly "Umm, Y-Yoruichi-sama."

"Yeees?"

"I want to know if you'll teach me again. I would appreciate it if you guided me like you did so long ago. Would you help me become not only a better warrior, but a better person? At least until I'm sure I can do it on my own?" she requested as she pulled herself off her mentor, now having the energy to walk unassisted again

"Heh. Of course I would, but what I really want to know is what prompted such a change? You certainly seem a bit nicer around others than I last recalled." Yoruichi asked with catty curiosity, which was met with a glance away and an ill concealed blush

"N-not much." She lied

"Oooh?" Yoruichi chirped in a way that made the other girl extremely wary "So you don't feel like talking. Well that's ok. Flash Master Yoruichi Shihoin has ways of making you talk."

In a panic the girl blurted out "D-do you promise not to tell anyone, Yoruichi-sama!"

"That depends is it a deeply guarded secret or hot juicy gossip?" She rang and letting out a laugh as her protégé crossed her arms with a frumpy face "Ok. I'll stop. I won't say a word, so what made such a big change in my little bee's heart."

"A…boy."

When the words left her mouth she watched her immaculate goddess, her mentor in all things, fall to the ground tripping dumbly over her own two feet with the news. Soifon looked on in horror, while her goddess corrected herself from the fall "Really…? Really? Really! Well look at you. Ah! I feel so old in seeing my little bee having her very first boy crush." She then wiped an imaginary tear from her eye. She then pounded her fist into her open palm "Oh that's right! I completely forgot that Ichigo mentioned that you two were an item." She then leaned over and lightly nudged Soifon in the side with her elbow "Sooooo how many bases have you managed to get to?"

"Bases? What do strategic tactical points have to do with us?" Shaolin said confusedly not understanding the metaphor, which was made painfully evident by the Nekomata's deadpan. "Err…squad 2?" she guessed with a cringe

Yoruichi exhaled and shook her head trying to remember who she was dealing with "I mean, what have you two done as a couple? Hold hands, hugged, maybe give a kiss or two, anything?" she asked with good natured curiosity, when she saw Soifon's face go from blank to flush, she knew she hit gold "Ok, spill."

"T-that's private!" Soifon shouted as she marched onward, not wanting to discuss what happened in another section of the woods 72 hours ago.

"Sounds scandalous if you ask me!" she proclaimed as she wrapped her own arms around her body and started rocking back and forth with a sway in her hips "Did he hooold you? Did he huuug you? Did he kiiiiss you?" she said in a sing song voice, watching the woman burn with embarrassment "Or did he do something extra 'special'?"

"…" Shaolin then stopped walking and looked back with a smug smile and dreamy eyed expression "Yeeaaah…it was definitely special." She then looked up at her mentor, who was now sporting a huge grin, and promptly freaked out "I ahh mean, we need to go stop Aizen! Hahaha…l-let's go Y-Y-Yoruichi-sama!" she yelled disappearing in a flash step, while the goddess of flash followed laughing whole heartedly now.

(Same time as Soifon encounter: Kisuke)

"Cry out Benihime!" as the usual eccentric scientist launched a crimson wave of energy that greatly disturbed the ranks of the court guard Shinigami.

"The enemy's here!" one of the more panicked voice cried out, making everyone scramble while Senna and Shinjiro snuck in through the sides, while Kisuke charged up another energy beam.

As another beam of crimson energy shot out of the forest, Senna seized the moment "Take them to the twilight Mirokumaru!" she declared as she spun the Shakujo over head creating a large vacuum sucking up a good portion of the Shinigami around her, while in the eye of her storm she jumped as high as she could and mimicked the falling of the other Shinigami beside her to help throw the enemy off.

From in another part of the crowd the voice of Shinjiro yelled out "Attack!"

Soon the crowd under its own panic dissolved into a full on civil war, as Shinigami started to turn blade on each other not knowing who to trust, all looking out for their own skin.

(Senna)

As she came back down to the earth, the woman immediately flipped back unto her feet and landed gracefully with her Shakujo at the ready. With a firm thrust forward her weapon banged into the unprotected stomach of the Shinigami in front of her, she then leaped on the man's back and jumped high in the air spinning her Shakujo which created a tight vortex sucking up some more unwary enemies, who were busy clashing amongst themselves.

As the female Kurosaki touched back down amid the raining of bodies, she pulled her gale saber out, while putting her rod into her sash, as another challenger appeared and crashed his sword into hers. She was momentarily pushed back by the strong individual, who yelled of defeating her in the name of captain Tosen. Not ready to give an inch she side stepped making the man who was dead locking her stumble forward. She was going to strike when a man and a woman got in between them as they wrestled on the ground trying to over the power the other.

'This is suffocating!' she thought to herself as her enemy got lost in the crowd. The woman backpedaled until she backed into someone, quickly wheeling around and came blade-to-blade with the slightly winded Shinjiro.

"Ooh, it's you." He said with a slight relaxation, as he pulled his weapon back "Sorry about that."

"Not a problem." Senna replied just as amicably, glad to see a friendly face amongst the fighting mob

The two would have exchanged pleasantries more, but were stopped when they both felt a huge spike in Ichigo's spiritual pressure. They both looked up as a huge sonic boom and large pillar of light began to fade out. The two looked back at each other, and shared a moment despite the ringing of swords, kido spell and cries of pain.

"We gotta fight harder Shinjiro-san! Ichigo-kun is counting on us!" she declared as she clenched her fist with a new found determination.

Shinjiro nodded solemnly "He certainly is counting on all of us. Stay safe." He exclaimed as he started to disappear off in another direction, only to then need to block an attack from someone else in this uproar.

(Kisuke)

The forest was full of the laughter of Kisuke Urahara as he continued to take scours of enemies from his perch in the forest. While keeping a good eye on Ichigo up above. He started to charge up energy when he heard the sound of something close to scratching against a surface. Not wanting to find out the ex-Taicho jumped from his perch as the area he'd been standing on got sliced apart, while grayish dust floated on by.

Landing on a new branch he turned around to see a tall busty woman with long orange hair, walking towards him with some kind of ash coming from her blade hilt. "And may I have your name my fair lady?" Kisuke asked with a gentlemanly bow, though the woman could see from his shifting of his eyes upward it was to peek at her chest.

Rangiku Matsumoto while normally one to flirt didn't have the time for casual dialogue "Tenth division Fuku-taicho, Rangiku Matsumoto. And you must be the naughty little boy whose been attacking from the trees."

"Guilty as charged." He then straightened his back out and was about to say something further when, the Fuku-taicho sensed something behind her and was forced to move.

As she landed on another branch she found herself surrounded on all sides by members in black garb reminiscent to ninja from the feudal era. Looking back around she saw a smaller pale woman with dark violet hair turning back around with a confused expression "Matsumoto?" the voice of Subaru asked "Shouldn't you be assisting Ichigo?" her eyes then narrowed slightly "Or do you want to face us?"

The orange haired bombshell looked at the woman then back to the blond man who had his energy charged up and ready to rip. "Pfff hahaha!" she busted out laughing, catching them all off guard "This is too rich! The whole stealth and punishment force, the ones who handle those who break the law, is assisting the traitors, hahahaha! Oh man, I never thought I'd live to see the day when something like this happens!"

"So…you are against us?" Subaru said as she held her hand up to give a command to subdue her.

"Huh? Me, no way! It's just Toshiro-chan mentioned Soifon-taicho acting weird, now I see why." She then turned back to the blonde of the group, waved off with the back of her hand "Yeah, sure, go on ahead, I ain't gonna stop you."

"Wonderful." Urahara chirped as he looked back to the battlefield to continue his assault

With her ally and their escape route secured, Subaru turned to command her troops "We're entering the combat zone. Squad two spread out and subdue!" she then leaped through the trees towards the open fray with the Onimitsukido following closely behind fanning out with each step.

(Shinjiro)

Forcing his opponent back, after nearly cutting Senna with Muramasa, he quickly chopped into the leg of his opponent and scathing just enough of the grey mark to light it up "Steel flash!" he yelled the trigger phrase aloud

All around the battlefield cries of similar pain and agony echoed over the battlefield. The samurai only winced knowing that this was all his doing. 'No, gotta stay focused.' He chided himself, to block out everything else and focus solely on the task ahead of him. The thought was quickly pushed out of his mind when he felt a hand touch loosely upon his shoulder, half turning around, he thrusted his elbow backwards to stagger the assailant before sweeping with his sword when he saw his wife who back flipped a safe distance away from her husband, going by her instincts to nimbly avoid the man's attack.

"When did you get here?" Shinjiro asked, as he quickly closed the gap to Subaru, and positioned himself in front of her to ward off any attackers, that would dare get the notion to attack his wife in his presence.

"Just now." She informed as she gave an uneasy look around her with all the brawling individuals "I really don't belong here." She said as her hands trembled anxiously "I'm not one for this kind of fighting."

The samurai looked over his shoulder, putting on a brave face to ease her fear "Don't worry Su-chan, I'm here with you."

"…" the woman blinked in surprise, not expecting the words at that moment in time "I really like it when you call me that Shin-kun." The woman said appreciatively smiling faintly for a split second before refocusing on the task at hand "Come on, we need to move!" When her husband asked 'what's the hurry?' as he still felt Ichigo fighting, the woman pointed skyward where a white haired boy with a captain's Haori was descending upon them with a ice dragon wrapped around his blade.

"You've got to be kidding!" Shinjiro yelled as he and his wife vacated the immediate fifty-yards via flash step, in no mood to get permanent frost bite

(Toshiro)

Breaking his fall using his Ice Zanpaktou, the tenth division captain got up from his ice crater. The already ludicrous fighting going on was complicated further by the Onimitsukido joining the fray and attacking just about everyone in sight. Which didn't even account for Unohana's forces being attacked by Kenpachi Zaraki's group of berserkers, fortunately the woman seemed to be handling them well.

The man looked around and was taking these very precious moments to analyze the situation. Not even his –a Taicho- presence was stopping the huge fight going on around him. He had already sensed Ichigo fighting up to the Sokyoku hill and was debating on whether going up there to confront Ichigo. But decided against it, he would fight him only if he needed to, his duty was still to Soul Society and right now he needed to restore order by putting down whatever insurgents caused this uproar.

The man's main objective was put on postponement when he felt a very hard gale blowing at him from the side, stepping to the side he saw a small, but still bigger than him, twister approaching knocking people out of the way or carrying them into the air.

As the strong windstorm blew closer, Toshiro jumped out of the way and spotted his target who was dangling several dozen feet in the air now, he jumped upward to go deal with her, when a gigantic, loud and fiery explosion occurred from the depths of the forest to the west of the Sokyoku grounds. Turning his head in the direction he saw the fading blast that looked closely to a nuclear bomb. 'That Reiatsu…was that Soifon-taicho?' he asked himself incredulously, wondering what was over there that warranted Bankai. Though considering the fact his Bankai was out here, he wouldn't doubt another riot.

He was quickly broken from his thoughts as a large gust of wind sucked him up and then threw him back down against the ground roughly. The boyish captain pushed himself back to his feet ignoring the stinging sensation of his body, and turned to see another tower of wind fast approaching "No more games!" he yelled as he jumped up and using his incredible spiritual power swung his ice dragon at the base of the twister allowing to ride the storm upward, it's cold might freezing the biting winds with each passing second.

When the dragon finished it's ascent a large frozen pillar stood between the captain and his aerial opponent. The looming tower started to crack up and then busted into hundreds of pieces, the large fragments raining all over the battlefield. With nothing no longer obscuring his vision he looked around the bright sky and found no trace of his enemy "Damn, most have gotten away." He cursed. Sensing danger he quickly brought his sword around behind him intercepting an attack from another soul reaper "But you won't." He said dangerously, as ice started to encase the reaper's blade

(Senna)

Having been knocked out of the air courtesy of a huge ice block, she clutched onto it for dear life as she sped closer and closer to the ground. Calculating the distance in her head, she waited a few more seconds before jumping off the cube as it crashed against the ground, and rolled forward to help minimize the damage to her body. With a quick padding down, she smiled knowing she was still ok. The woman was about to get to her feet when she looked ahead and saw more people coming. "I better get out of here."

(Gin)

The silver-haired traitor looked on from his place at the edge of the woods on the east side of the Sokyoku hill "My, my…" he said allowing himself to revel in the destruction, panic, and over all desperate struggles amongst the Shinigami. The man looked back at his entire division "We certainly can't let them have all the fun." He pulled out his sword and pointed at the infighting mass of people "Attack. Put down any and all resistors."

With his words the men and women behind let out a resounding war cry as they charged forward, running with reckless abandon, while their Taicho remained stock still, with the exception of his ever increasing grin, his blade still pointed forward, and his crimson eyes revealed to the path before him.

It was times like this that he truly felt alive; yes, to him the day was truly one for celebration.

(Shinjiro and Subaru)

The pair looked on as the forces Gin Ichimaru came pouring from his hiding grounds to attack the Shinigami, creating even more pandemonium on the already widespread and bewilder mass of warriors. Feeling a slight tugging of his arm, Shinjiro turned and looked into the solemn worry-filled face of Subaru, who pulled something out of her pocket before looking back up to the Sokyoku where the battle was coming to an end.

Time was of the essence.

(Same time as Soifon encounter: Ichigo)

"I just don't understand you. How can you stand by and allow your sister to die?" The strawberry soul reaper asked to this loyal but homicidal Taicho, completely unable to figure out the guy and how he thought.

Byakuya scoffed as he sent a glare that was neither filled with disgust nor hate, it was merely passive like he was trying to communicate something on a level Ichigo couldn't see "Hmph. You have no right to judge me, boy."

"I have all the right to judge you!" he yelled back angrily "Only recently did I find my sister, and I know that if anyone so much as looked at her funny, I'd make them regret it." he then pointed at the Taicho with his finger, which would have singled him out had there been a crowd around "You should be helping me rescue Rukia not, trying to kill her!"

"Truly?" the regal man said with mock captivation, he then closed his eyes and shook his head disappointedly "If that's your prerogative then I can easily see why you have attacked soul society." He lifted his head back up and gripped his sword hard ready to put an end to words "You are not doing this to save Rukia; rather it is your own barbaric need to destroy civil order that has set you on this course. It seems you will need to be taught the difference between a savage and his civilized better. I will make you kneel cur."

Ichigo resigned himself to the fact that he wouldn't listen "Even now you don't see what going on! You fool." He then charged his reiatsu as it enveloped his body "I'm going to enjoy breaking your sword and your soul!

Byakuya suddenly disappear from in front of him, and reappeared with his sword raised to pierce his soul core from behind "Talk is cheap, boy." He said coolly as he thrusted forward.

Ichigo quickly ducked down and used his feet to sweep behind him, forcing the swordsman to back step, as the kung-fu specialist rotated around he sprung forward, his massive sword striking against the captain's sword. His spiritual power trying to overcome the man.

The captain glared as he pushed the man back, flash stepping a small ways back "Hmm, I stand corrected. You're not as pathetic as I remember." He then raised his sword vertically before him "Still you are no match for me. Scatter." The blade turned a vibrant pink and started to separate around him, riding the winds and blending in awaiting the command to strike Byakuya's opponent down "Senbonzakura."

The fourth seat took a moment to glance to his left and right seeing the many petals dancing around forming a wall between him and the captain. "That's a pretty dangerous Shikai captain." He commented turning his sharp eyes back to the man who was intrigued that the fourth seat could actually see them. Ichigo took half a step back, so he leaned to one side and raised Zangetsu to where it was parallel to his shoulder, pouring his reiatsu into it "But I!" he then stepped forward swinging his sword, which in turn launched another crescent wave of energy that engulfed all of the flower petals in front of him and kept charging forward to their stunned master

Ichigo then lifted his sword back up sending an impassive gaze before him, the clouds of dust that he had kicked up covering his view, not that he needed it since he could tell that the captain wasn't down. "Can destroy whatever you got. I told you, I'm going to break your sword, it doesn't matter how many you have." He then pointed his weapon directly in front him, the smoke clearing showing Byakuya Kuchiki looking moderately alright, but his left hand was bloody, and the dust around his feet signaled that he moved at the last possible second "Get serious either use your Bankai." He declared while his reiatsu started to press against the man "or get out of my way."

The Kuchiki allowed himself to flex his arm to see how damaged it was, and found it to still be serviceable. "You managed to knock down all of Senbonzakura with one move. I don't think even Yoruichi could claim to have done such a thing at least not so quickly." He then looked back at the man while his sword started to reform back into his katana state "Never-the-less, before I do I have just one question for you."

"And that is?"

Byakuya allowed himself a small smile as he gazed to the man's face wanting to see his reaction "Did you by chance know the two cockroaches that invaded the penance tower?"

"Yeah, I did. And they had a name too." Ichigo yelled as he gripped his sword tightly, swinging it back to his side "Their names were Hanataro Yamada and Ganju Shiba!"

"Really?" he replied as he brought his sword in front of him and dropped it "to me I called them what I am about to call you." he looked square into Ichigo's face "Dust in the wind. Bankai."

When the words were uttered Ichigo saw the sword melt into the ground and the scene around Byakuya changed into a view of nothingness. Suddenly pillars of swords began to rise out of the ground as the original blade disappeared more from view. Each stack of blade rose on both sides of them and continued past. Then Byakuya raised his hand slightly and faintly directed it in Ichigo's direction "Senbonzakura Kageyoshi." He muttered as the gateway of blades all turned a vibrant pink and broke apart into thousands if not millions of cherry blossoms.

Reacting purely on instinct, the Onimitsukido member flash stepped from his spot, and not a second sooner as the place he had been standing on turned into a small crater with petals leaking out from the area. He kept moving as fast as he could his eyes, whether to his benefit or horror, saw every charging petal heading towards his direction from every and all angles.

Ichigo swung Zangetsu, to knock back a large wave of petal so he could escape, and it met with air when the petal blossoms opened up and went around the blade, similar to people in a street going around a scene. Hearing a sound to his right, he instantly flash stepped from his spot, as another tendril of sakura petals crashed into where he had been.

The moment he materialized in the next spot he was once again forced to flash away, to the next spot 'Damn it. I can't get a moment of breathing room.' He cursed as he avoid another crushing pillar of the Bankai, turning his eyes he saw Byakuya Kuchiki looking on like a statue not making a move to attack 'Maybe he can't fight up close when he has Bankai out, he did let the petal do all the work in Shikai so maybe...' Ichigo theorized as he flash stepped closer, giving him a straight shot at the man.

As he kept running forward he swerved to the right avoid one crashing pillar as he kept running, and then jumped to the side as another one tried to crush him. He kept running forward his blade being raised by the second, and jumped over a low sweeping stream of petal and flash stepped forward when two pillars collided from the sides at the spot he had been in mid-jump.

He then materialized right in front of Byakuya, a smug smirk on his face "You're open!" he yelled as he brought Zangetsu down to cut him down. "Game over!"

His hypothesis however was proven undeniably false when, from out of nowhere, petals materialized in front of him blocking the strike and upon taking the shape of his sword pushed the soul reaper skyward with incredible force, forcing him to hold tight and keep his sword in place or be consumed by the pink horde.

"You're wrong." Byakuya said in a final tone, as he extended his hand to Ichigo "I have already won, you merely didn't realize it." When he finished saying this all of the sakura petal that weren't pushing Ichigo up gathered behind him and charged forward to sandwich him. Ichigo looked back in time just to see what was coming towards him.

The cloud of blades swallowed him up and slammed their captive target into the hard rocky ground with devastating force. Byakuya tsked as he turned around from the huge crater to leave and pursue Rukia, his petals filtering out of the crater and going behind their master. The cool nobleman took but a step when he heard a violent coughing. The Taicho looked back and quickly flash stepped to the rim of the impact site, his eyes widened at seeing the carrot top bloodied and severely cut up but very much alive. "You are surprisingly persistent." He muttered

Ichigo huffed a second longer to intake much needed oxygen, and then looked at the man with a dangerous and wild expression "Heh, you just do things half ass. In the stealth force we make sure our target is dead, before moving on. We like to do the back stabbing." He then turned and spat some blood out of his mouth "Not be backstabbed."

"I will be sure to tell Soifon-taicho your final words, traitor." Byakuya said coldly which was met with a harsh laugh from Ichigo

"Final words! Hahaha! Man, your jokes are just as funny as Zangetsu's!" he then moved his arm and wiped away some sweat and blood from his forehead "I guess I gave you the wrong impression though. After all a Taicho with Bankai shouldn't have any problem fighting against another seated officer with Shikai out."

The regal man frowned darkly at what this battered and bloodied fool was proclaiming, it was utterly blasphemous "Be careful what you imply boy." He warned since even having a parent a Taicho didn't guarantee that one could attain Bankai themselves, even accounting the fact that he was an official soul reaper, he would have needed to have started training for it at the age of 6 or 7.

"Who's implying?" Ichigo said offhandedly, his spiritual pressure than flared up "I'M TELLING YOU BYAKUYA KUCHIKI!"

'I wonder. I wonder if he could save Rukia.' Byakuya pondered "Then show me." He said challengingly wonder if this boy could save his sister like he so 'implied' "Show me this Bankai of yours, so that I may dismember it, piece by piece."

"Fine. Just remember…" Ichigo warned as he brought Zangetsu around to his side and swept it in a half arc to where it was pointing at Byakuya like a missile. The cloth tail that covered Zangetsu when not in use wrapped around his arm all the way to the shoulder covering each wound before the tail dangled behind him, riding the winds created by it's owner intense and rapidly rising spiritual pressure "be careful what you wish for." He yelled as his spiritual pressure blew outward covering his entire body in a bright white light "Bankai!"

A huge swell of energy instantaneously sucked into Zangetsu and shot out directly where Byakuya Kuchiki had been standing forcing the man to flash step away from the immediate spot. The energy cannon blowing outward into the sky being seen by a good portion of the Shinigami down below.

"Grr…" Byakuya groaned as he allowed himself to take a much needed intake of air especially after that sneak attack. He turned to look behind him and saw a large but narrow trench backwards stopping about half way through the execution ground. The man then mentally brought his cherry blossoms up around him and approached the edge again the dust cloud kicked up making it impossible to see.

A moment or two passed, but once the Kuchiki saw a small hint of black from the clearing dust, he thrusted his palm forward calling all his power to destroy the man in the crater, knowing to the best of his knowledge that all Bankai were huge and staggering, and that it would be impossible to avoid at such close range. The onslaught of cherry blossom rushed forward and slammed into the ground, the man not seeing the mirage of black that rushed by him.

With a wave of his hand the cherry blossoms moved out of the way. Byakuya narrowed his eyes, when he didn't see a corpse, and he immediately called Senbonzakura Kageyoshi to his side.

"Where are you looking?" a cocky male voice called from behind the Taicho. Not wasting a second he wiped his arms around in the general direction of the voice, the wave of petals went forward consuming a good portion of the surrounding area, but again as it parted there was no trace of life or remains of death 'How is he doing this? Does he possess invisibility?'

"Tell me Taicho how does it feel?" the voice of Ichigo rang again, this time from behind the captain a second time. Byakuya looked backward only to see nothing but a shadow on the ground. The regal man turned his gaze upward and standing upon the scaffold was his opponent with a sharp change in attire. The standard Hakama was a flowing night black Gi with red coloring on the inside, it ran down his sides with jagged edges. The obi around the man's waist became a pure white, while holding up sleeker looking pants. Dancing in the man's hand was a onyx colored katana, that seemed to absorb all the light around it, running on the along the hilt were four small arcs making a swastika, with red diamonds on the handle and a small broken chain on the end. The now revealed man smirked subtly and pointed his sword directly at Byakuya "to be looked down upon by your betters?"

"What did you say?" The Kuchiki head replied with furious indignation at the man's words

"Clean out your ears. I said how does it feel to be looked down upon by your betters?" Ichigo reiterate, his eyes dropping about half-way down, showing his distaste for the man "Why are you so mad? I'm just giving you a small taste of your attitude backatcha."

"You…" Byakuya muttered before shaking his head to return to his cool disposition. He knew he shouldn't be getting riled up over that pathetic excuse for a Bankai. "Hmph. You expect to beat me with that tooth pick? When you said Bankai, I expected something a little more extravagant or efficient than just 'that'. Sad really, watching you think you have victory; with such an insignificant toy. And you wish to save Rukia? Don't make me laugh. Your audacity is astounding."

Ichigo closed his eyes and shook his head now disappointed "If that's what you think, then we'll see. But I bet you that when this fights over…" he then glared at him with his sword at the ready "you're going to want to retire permanently!"

"Foolish!" the sixth division captain muttered as he thrusted his hands in the direction of the scaffold. Ichigo merely smirked at the oncoming wave and charged up a Getsuga Tensho, he then flung it forward, the dark reiatsu cutting through the sea of blossoms easily, forcing the captain to jump backwards to dodge it.

As the blast hit the ground, Byakuya had to bite back his surprise when he felt a firm hand on the back of his shoulder. He immediately flashed stepped back to the crater, already hearing the sound of Ichigo's sword cutting through air to reach him.

With a firm desire to get this over with he directed both his hands in quick motion while one half of his Bankai raised itself like a shield in front of him while the other half quickly rushed forth hugging the ground lowly. The 'insignificant' Bankai user tilted his head slight when he saw the giant shield then spread out to try and get him in a pincer formation.

'That won't work.' He thought to himself as he jumped into the air dodging the proverbial pool of blades, which then rushed skyward after him. The man then casually looked back seeing another swarm of cherry blossom flanking him.

"There is no escape." Byakuya said quietly as he closed his eyes, his hands gestured gently but imposingly to his high flying target "Gokei Senbonzakura Kageyoshi."

On the command the petals started to swirl around Ichigo and then they all rushed forth to consume the man from all sides. Ichigo whoever closed his eyes as the blades came to him, "Tenburenjin (Heavenly dance with god) [2]!" he yelled as he quickly moved his arm at an incredibly fast and growing faster pace. His sword creating a small personal dome around him which not a single petal could get through, with one last horizontal slash, the attacking mob was deflected backwards harmlessly falling downward. "I told you it I'd break all of your swords…" he replied from his spot only to disappear from view "Next…" Byakuya heard from behind him, seeing the man with his sword coming down against him "is your haughty pride!"

As the black blade came down, Byakuya had to channel everything into his willpower to not cry from the tearing of flesh from tissue. Not letting up Ichigo took a step forward bring the weapon back around and cutting across the chest of the man, then turning just enough where he managed to kick the man square in his bi-cut chest. Sending him sprawling across the ground several feet away.

The wounded nobleman breathed harshly his hand clutching his wound, as he got up to one knee. His eyes conveying both a clear disdain for the man and commendation for his ability that stemmed solely for his reason for fighting. 'Rukia it seems you give people strength.' The man blinked as he got back to his feet 'Strength enough to challenge a death god.'

"If that's all you've got Taicho, I suggest you quit while you're ahead. I'm not trying to deprive Rukia of a sibling, even if he doesn't care about her."

"Haha…your sense of self-righteousness is certainly refreshing." The captain chuckled, seeing just a bit more of himself in his opponent "You force my hand. So I will promise you this…" he then thrust his hand to his side, the million of blades then encircled both combatants before floating upward to the sky blackening it out, leaving them encased in some kind of dome structure "If you can beat me here. Rukia is yours, I will not pursue you a step further, but…" when he whispered this, Ichigo went wide eyed when he saw pink swords begin to form and encircle the both of them "fail and I will deliver upon you a miserable end to your sorry excuse of a life."

"Fuck…more swords?" Ichigo huffed to himself in frustration

"hmmhmm, be thankful. You will be the second person to witness this state, but also…" he then thrusted his right hand outward and a sword shot into it "it's first victim!" he yelled as he charged forward.

The two swordsman blades both clashed against each other, both men trying to push through to gain favor in this grueling fight. Using his strength Ichigo pushed Byakuya backwards and was moving to cut him in half, when the nobleman glanced to his side, and a sword sprang to life and then shot forward in between the pair stopping the stroke cold.

"Shit." Ichigo cursed as he saw the man lunged forward with his sword and, only thanks to his special forces training, managed to move just enough to get only a large gash from the weapon in his side. Not willing to surrender, Ichigo pulled his sword up breaking apart the sakura sword and slice the cheek of his opponent who whirled the blade around his enemies arm to lob off his head.

Jerking his body, Ichigo cart wheeled over to the side, delivering a firm kick to Byakuya's face as he maneuvered out of the way, and then forced to hand spring away when the captain extended his free hand and formed a unchanted Shakkaho fire spell that exploded where Ichigo had been.

Byakuya Kuchiki then beckoned forth another sword to come to his free hand as he flash stepped forward bringing his sword against the black Zangetsu. The two men stared hatefully into each other's eyes as the blades pressed against the other. The Kuchiki then thrusted the sword forward to stab through the man's heart.

Seeing the blade coming, the male Kurosaki poured a bunch of reiatsu into his blade "Getsuga Tensho!" he yelled firing off a point blank energy burst that broke both swords and consumed the man. "(hah) (huff)…" the man wiped some sweat off his forehead as he gripped his sword with both hands, expectant as the energy wave started to dissipate. When he saw the wounded form of Byakuya he moved to put an end to it.

When his eyes widened and he felt some blood in his mouth, he kneeled down and saw the dirty trick the captain had done. Impaled all along his shoulder and legs were several swords trapping him in his spot. He tried to slowly move, but let out a pained whimper as the flesh rendering blades dug in deeper. The sky behind him suddenly lighting up a fiery red, and muffling out all noise, before it returned back to the domes' dark atmosphere leaving him to silence.

That's when he heard the sound of approaching footsteps, looking up he saw a heavily wounded and breathing incredibly hard sixth division captain walking towards him favoring one leg and arm. "I apologize Ichigo Kurosaki." The man said using Ichigo's name for the time ever "Using Senkei, I promise myself to finish my enemy on my own accord. I had to break this vow with you." He said calmly as a sword started to form in his hand "This the end for you, but know as you pass into oblivion, you were my greatest challenge ever." He raised his sword above Ichigo's ahead "Farewell, Ichigo." And brought the sword down while Ichigo lowered his head and closed his eyes tightly

'Not yet! Hichigo you're on!' Ichigo yelled mentally as he relinquished control over to his inner hollow

'Heh! You got it, partner!' the monster smirked as it cracked it's finger's in his mind

Within a instant Ichigo's arm shot out and grabbed the sword with his free hand, an act that the captain couldn't even believe feasible as each blade was composed of no less than a hundred petals, it was designed to cut. "Impossible…" he muttered as he used more of his force to bring the weapon back down but little avail "Even the son of a Taicho can't possess such power after all that I've done to you! Who are you exactly!"

A dark chuckle escaped the lips of the now possessed man "Are you a fucking moron? You should already know my name you primed up bitch." The man lifted his head up a half mask formed upon his face. A mask of a hollow "I'm fucking Ichigo Kurosaki! You're killer!"

The Shinigami-hollow hybrid seized the moment and brought his Tensa Zangetsu around slashing deeply into the man. He then grabbed the man by his shirt and utilizing his bankai's ability zoomed to the top of the dome and threw him as hard as he could down to the ground, and threw in a full powered Getsuga Tensho for good measure.

Staring down from his place in the sky, the hollow possessed man scowled at seeing his worthy opponent still breathing and capable of moving 'Thanks for that, I got it from here. He's on his last legs.' Ichigo commented alongside Hichigo, as the man calmly reached for his mask and began to peel it off his face

'Don't get it wrong partner. I helped you for myself. I want to fight you, and I'll be damned before I let someone else beat you again, especially HIM! Remember that and remember your killer instincts!'

The mask then shattered from his face as the hollow faded into the back of his mind. Ichigo then quickly moved back to where Byakuya Kuchiki was supposed to be lying in a broken heap. Speaking of the man, he was staring at his nemesis's face that no longer had the evil mask 'That mask was a hollows, and it said it was him even though it didn't sound like him. What is going on?' the man then narrowed his eyes 'Questions for another time, first I must deal with him, but I don't have much left.'

"You ready to give up yet?"

Byakuya couldn't help but smirk from the sheer persistence this man had "Almost. I don't have much left, so let us decide this with one last strike on both of our parts."

The battered and bloodied Ichigo looked into the tired eyes of his opponent, and allowed himself to think for a moment and then spoke "Fine. One final blow from the both of us." He then started to flood all his remaining power into his sword.

The sixth captain then held brought his hands together in front of him and called all the swords into that one point "Shukei:Hakuteiken (End scape: White emperor sword)"

As he gave most of his focus into putting power behind his last possible strike, Ichigo couldn't help but marvel at the power the Kuchiki still had. The attack he was creating made a pure white blade that flowed towards his hands and extended behind him. A white halo forming above Byakuya's regal crown and two wings made of pure energy beated lightly, giving him an intimidating appearance that befitted his noble origins.

"Are you ready?" Byakuya asked as he turned his body to accent his swing

"To win? Of course!" Ichigo said with a certain flair in his voice

The two combatants then charged forwards, one covered in pitch black energy while the other was covered in a celestial white. Byakuya seizing the opportunity swung his blade first at his opponent who merely glared at him in return. The huge attack behind him surged forward in an unending onslaught easily destroying a great portion of everyone and everything that could be placed in front of him.

The loud sonic boom that accompanied attack began to subside and as the man got up from his kneeling position looked forward to see a chunk of the execution ground missing "I almost wished to believe…" he lamented, as he had destroyed his opponent so completely his reishi body couldn't even be sustained. The man shook his head and sighed to himself and was going to turn away when he heard it.

The sound of a footstep.

He wheeled around to see the Bankai clad Ichigo Kurosaki coming at him from behind with his attack still reared 'Now I get it. His Bankai is small to allow for incredible speed.' Then it hit him the reason why he didn't attack was because he moved out of the way to get a clear shot

"You lose Byakuya!" he yelled as the man closed his eyes, accepting death with dignity.

The loud roar of the black onslaught shot out over the forest in a wave, alerting everyone around the conclusion to the battle on Sokyoku hill.

"Repent your crimes." The voice in front of Byakuya said, as he opened his eyes to see Ichigo Kurosaki standing in front of him his sword beside the noble's neck, while a single black lightning strand coursed around the tip to the hilt.

'I still live?' he questioned to himself, while he wouldn't deny at being relieved at the fact he was still alive, he was fully prepared to die for his actions and felt because of how Ichigo won, his honor has been tarnished. "At the last moment you moved out of the way didn't you." He said not in a question format but more of saying a fact.

"So?"

Byakuya narrowed his eyes, though he felt a slight tugging of his lips "You cheated."

Ichigo merely rolled his eyes, since he never figured he'd need to spell out his occupation to an enemy "I'm an assassin of the second squad's special forces unit. I don't fight fair!" he then pulled his sword back and placed it lazily against his shoulder and looked away with a 'whatever' expression "Beside I'm not fighting for my honor, unlike you. I have more important things to think about then something so petty. I can live with Rukia being alive, and myself being labeled a coward, then the alternative." He then turned a fierce gaze back at his opponent who seemed to be taking this into consideration "Rukia seems like a nice person, so I'm sure she cares about you, so I'm not gonna deprive her of her family member. Even if he is a selfish asshole."

Byakuya moved to say something to contrary but sighed and gave a look of resignation "I suppose your reasoning is sound, unlike your state of mind earlier." He jabbed, wanting to get the last word in "I concede my defeat. The win is yours."

'Wow, Just-wow. I beat him and he still acts like he had a say in the matter…what a piece of work.' Ichigo thought to himself, taking a moment in the lull of action to cultivate an opinion of the man, as he awaited Aizen "Just don't think we're suddenly friends. I absolutely hate your guts for what you did to Hanataro and Ganju."

The banter between the two was cut short as they heard the approaching footsteps of someone. Ichigo instinctively reached for his weapon expecting Aizen, while Byakuya grabbed his asauchi to protect himself for whatever new assailant came.

Both of them immediately blinked in surprise when they saw Renji Abarai come up from the final steps still carrying Rukia Kuchiki.

"Renji?" Ichigo called out, as the man suddenly snapped and looked at his surroundings in confusion

"What? Huh? How the hell did I get here?" he asked a loud, and was then promptly hit by the woman in his hands

"You idiot! How did you manage to take us back here! We should be somewhere else!" Rukia yelled as she looked incredulously at the fool in front of her.

"Well excuuuuse me, I was doing fine in our escape attempt that you weren't really helping with!"

"That! You! Uggghh!"

From his left Ichigo heard a sigh from the spent captain "Never a dull moment with them around." Ichigo allowed himself to smile somewhat and was going to step forward to get Rukia out of here when everyone in the area felt a huge spiritual power fall over them.

"Thank-you for the gift," a smooth familiar voice said above them all, the gathered people looked back to see the fifth division captain Sosuke Aizen with a white bundle in his hand "Renji Abarai." He said calmly while the white bundle moved the extended part beyond his arm, showing the face of Rukia Kuchiki.

'What!' all three of them thought to themselves as they looked back at Renji who was holding nothing, but air in a cradling posture.

"If you'll excuse me." Aizen said casually as he lifted Rukia up by her neck and broke a small tablet "I need to claim my prize."

The man's arm turned a plant-like green. Then without a seconds thought, thrusted it into the body of Rukia Kuchiki who had a look of absolute horror on her face, not expecting Sosuke Aizen of all people to try and kill her. As the hand approached a hole opened in Rukia's chest cavity, while her eyes glazed over, her body completely limp from paralysis. The circle centered around her heart revealed a small crystal that gently moved itself into Aizen's outstretched hand, while the hole closed up in a matter of seconds.

'To think all that I've desired, the key to my wildest imagination, rests within the palm of my hand.' The maniac mused triumphantly at the radiant, but unawakened gem 'With those three, I could have you up and running within a month or so. All is going according to plan.' Then the bespectacled man took his eyes off his new found toy, and looked at the struggling Rukia, who was trying to free herself, with a casual smile "I have no need of you." He then casually without regard to her life, tossed her over the edge of the scaffold and pointed a finger at her 'Raikoho.' He mentally commanded as yellow reishi formed a moderate sized ball an inch away from his finger

The burst of energy shot out and smashed into the woman's side as she fell down to the earth.

"Rukia!" Byakuya yelled as he moved as fast as he could and caught her, spending just a moment to gaze over her wounds. He then cast a furious gaze at the serene Aizen "Annihilate him." He commanded Senbonzakura pointing his arm directly at him, to destroy with every fiber of his being.

The man looked calmly before blurring out of existence. He then reappeared beside Byakuya and stabbed him in the shoulder "You put such an emphasis on your clan's pride and honor. You were so easy to manipulate, it was almost painful." He then leaned over to whisper into the man's ears "Why do you think back in the meeting, I let everything hinge upon you? You could have saved her. But. You. Didn't." He then pulled out his sword from the man shoulder, causing him to lean forward and press one arm against the ground to support himself.

Ichigo and Renji were about to move when they suddenly froze, seeing Aizen casually snap his fingers. The sky began to crack, and then suddenly the thin crack pulled apart wide enough to reveal a bunch of menos grande. The giant dull faced hollows eagerly stepped out to walk amongst this new found territory, while Aizen and his associates ride showed up from behind the portal "Oh yes, I didn't forget about you two." Aizen said smugly still not bothering to look their way, as he already had that planned out and ready to be executed right about…

Now.

The two Shinigami then suddenly felt a bunch of sword stabs at the same time. Renji looked down to see a lengthy sword extending through his stomach, and another long blade through his shoulder. The two blades then retracted from his body, and revealed two individuals walk by him only to strike him from the front.

The first was a messy silver haired man with pale skin, red eyes and an amused smirk plastered across his face, on his shoulders was a captain's Haori, with the number three. The red eyed man was Gin Ichimaru.

The other assailant was a dark-skinned person of African descent. He had an orange scarf around his neck with a pair of impenetrable silver glasses over his face, the man's hair was dreaded and he too wore a Taicho's Haori. This person was Kaname Tosen.

Ichigo felt two strikes as well, one close to his spinal cord and the other in the soft spot between his neck and shoulder. He also vaguely heard the word 'live'. The two attacking individuals then walked forward and the one on the right re-stabbed his sword into Ichigo's chest, while the other moved faster than he could keep up but swung around his neck.

The strawberry soul reaper felt some blood come out of his mouth and felt some cold liquidy substance across his throat as he fell backwards. The two figures having a look of remorse and regret on their face. The two figures of…

Third seats: Shinjiro Taiga and Subaru Kujo.

Ichigo's eyes closed as he fell backwards and ended up crumpled on his right side against the ground, with Renji Abarai following immediately afterward. From his spot Ichimaru smirked as he looked at the anguish ridden pair "Whadda ya know? I can't believe you cut him down in cold blood." He said with a hint of mirth, as he then looked at their 'friend' who had blood all over his body, multiple sword wounds, and now judging by the blood, a slashed throat. "That's just cruel."

Shinjiro pulled his sword out and turned away from the body, with a look of absolute devastation over what he did "Shut up. Let's just get out of here."

"What's the hurry?" Aizen asked inquisitively as he turned around slowly, while the menos grande started to walk around the spiritual enriched area

It was Subaru who spoke "All the Shinigami's spiritual energies have sensed not only you but the Menos Grande. They are about to converge on us any moment now. We…need to retreat." She said with reluctance in her voice

"Are you certain?" Aizen said detecting a lie inside the spies' words, and now wanted to hear the truth. Which everyone knew if he didn't get there would be dire consequences, as evident as his spiritual pressure pressed lightly against the younger pair, though it was ready to overpower them should they try anything.

The spy turned her gaze downward and closed her eyes feeling the tears come out more "I…I don't wish sister to see this…" she said in utter honesty, since that was one of her prominent reasons for getting out of here ASAP.

"You mean," he started as a golden light surrounded all five of them to transport them to Hueco Mundo "that sister right there?" he asked as he pointed his finger behind them.

The traitorous pair despite all their urges not too, turned just enough to where they could look over their shoulder, and sure enough beside Yoruichi Shihoin was her. Their friend, sister, and for one of them Taicho. With a look of utter disbelief, her eyes shifted between the downed possibly killed form of Ichigo and back to the two siblings.

"You?" she asked, her voice carrying all that she wanted to say to them in a single word

Unable to bear the guilt as she feared it might consume her. Subaru turned away feeling absolutely disgusted with herself. Shinjiro whoever kept a linger gaze for a second longer, then shifted it without moving his head to Ichigo, repeating the action twice, which Shaolin caught, and kept an impassive front for the moment.

"It seems you won this round Aizen." The voice of Kisuke Urahara said as multiple prominent Shinigami showed up on the execution ground "But I don't get it how were you able to pull this off?"

Aizen turned to his intellectual nemesis and smiled darkly, having a clear victory of the man, and he was going to relish it for all it was worth "You think I didn't plan for any changes or failings in my plan? You fool. I adapted to my circumstances and overcame, with no small help from my lovely Kyoka Suigetsu which complete controls my enemy's senses. View it once and you are already my puppet." He then gestured his hand to the dead body near the former and current second division captain "and now your only hope has been reduced to a corpse."

From his spot a winded Sou-taicho glared fiercely at Aizen "Are you saying this all your doing Aizen? All of it?"

"Yes." He said simply then gave an off-handed gesture "I had always planned to use the alternate method to get the Hogyoku, allowing the boy to destroy the Sokyoku, removing one very powerful tool from you clutches, and severely weaken you all. I would have been greatly pleased if you all ended up destroying yourselves, then I could have moped up the rest of you with little effort, unfortunately it didn't quite turn out in the most ideal of outcomes." He then turned around facing back as he and his cohorts continued to float away "Never the less this still benefits me in the end. I will await you all in the valley of screams and from their I shall ascend to the throne of heaven."

It instantly clicked to everyone aware of the governing order of things, exactly what Sosuke Aizen was insinuating. 'He's going to try to kill the spirit king!'

"Are you mad Aizen?" Shunsui asked questioning the man's sanity since it seemed he jumped the slippery slope

"Mad?" Aizen quoted with a hint of mirth "All through history people of great promise and change have been called 'mad' by their ignorant peers at the time, only to be proven right in the end. Do you think I will be any different? You may decry me now, but soon…" he then removed his glasses and smirked at them all "You'll be calling me god."

The large canine captain turned to his friend Tosen, and asked the question which could only define, the just man's mind boggling actions "Kaname! Do you really agree with this madman! Have you lost your sense of justice?"

"No. Justice walks the path of least bloodshed. That is my path, and it and I are intertwined. Farewell…old friend. We will meet again one day." The man said with certain finality that made the dog-Taicho growl uneasily

"We certainly will."

Rangiku turned to her old friend and stared at him with a complex look unable to see why he would do this "Got anything to say Gin?"

The silver haired man chuckled lightly "Just that if you want to live, and see the new world, Rangiku-chan. You'll need to adapt, and evolve over the trials ahead, and only then will you have chance to see me again. Grow strong."

'You never change…' she thought to herself with a frown, knowing that he was still messing with her even if his words did hold truth in them.

The bee looked at her fading siblings having already caught their clue, but acted the part, even though she still wished to know their thoughts "Do you have anything to say for yourselves?"

Shinjiro looked sadly at his wife, who looked as if she was having a panic attack or reliving some kind of nightmare, which to the samurai was true, given the nature of the scenario they were in. The bobbed black haired man glanced back with a sad look "Don't die."

Then with a wisp of light they all disappeared going to what they could only assume would be their home base, in the valley of screams. Leaving the wounded assembly of Shinigami to deal with five lumbering Menos Grande. The Sou-taicho being the commander glanced over his assembled mass, and then barked out "Sajin, Shunsui, Jushiro, Hitsuguaya, and myself will deal with these abominations. Captain Unohana please tend to the wounded up here. Everyone else, please return down below and stop the fighting between your forces and our own."

The resounding cry of 'yes sir!' echoed over the hill, and each team moved to go perform their respective task. With the area mostly vacant with the exception of Retsu Unohana, Isane Kotetsu who the previously mentioned woman request she tend to Abarai and Rukia, while she went to deal with both Taicho level fighters, and Senna who was a little wary of leaving Ichigo with these strangers who might have tried to kill them earlier this week.

Unohana walked over and turned Ichigo to where he was on his back. As the body shifted she looked intently over him and saw he was an utter mess, with blood from various parts on his body and a large amount spread across his throat 'No, wait.' She pressed her hand against the throat and wiped to the side, the lukewarm blood clung to her hand an oddity to be certain, but saw that underneath the blood spattered wound, there was no cut mark. 'Then where did this come from?' she asked herself as she rubbed the blood between her fingers "If he's still alive I'd best hurry." She said as she stood up "Invigorate, Minazuki." The Taicho said as she pulled out her Zanpaktou, which then began to morph in shape to become a large single eyed green manta ray like creature.

"What may I ask are you doing?" Senna asked cautiously, as she saw the even bustier woman in the white Haori line up the body of Ichigo to the forefront of the one legged sea creature.

"I'm going to save this boy's life." Retsu replied calmly, as Minazuki opened his large gaping mouth allowing his slimy tongue to slither underneath and wrapped around the rough orange haired teenager, then pulled him into his mouth delicately.

Senna froze under the action, feeling skeptical of the notion that being eaten by the fantasy-esque creature would truly help him. She looked into the face of the woman who was now helping a handsome but bloodied man to hobble over to the creature. "Taicho-san." Senna called out as Unohana looked her way, while Minazuki opened it's mouth for the other Taicho to collapse into, "I'm going with you." She said with a heated look

"Can you heal?" Unohana asked curiously, now eyeing the girl and coming to the conclusion that she based on her looks and choice weapon was the woman that was detailed to have been with Ichigo back at Jidanbo's gate.

"No. I can't heal. But I don't trust you with him either." She replied while narrowing her eyes, trying and failing to intimidate the unfettered woman.

"I see. That's fair enough." The woman said simply, understanding the woman's skepticism since they were technically enemies only moments before. She then got up and walked around to the side of the large manta-ray, and called to her Fuku-taicho who was busy healing Rukia and Renji, both looked much better than before "I'm going on ahead to get these two immediate care, once they are out of danger, I'll try and return provided we don't have too much influx."

"Roger, Taicho." The silver haired woman yelled back understanding the order, while Senna shifted her head to the woman recognizing the name Unohana as the one Ichigo mentioned before.

The fourth division captain then walked up the wing like a ramp, then turned slightly extending her hand to the wind Miko "Shall we miss?"

---

Ichigo: You guys are evil!

Shinjiro: Ahahaha! You figured it out too late foolish fool! Bwaha! Bwahahaha!

Subaru: Shin, you need to work on your evil laugh. Seriously.

Soifon: Can you at least tell me why you joined Aizen's side?

Subaru:…(blush) w-well you see we were hungry. And they had these muffins (3).

Soifon (painfully): Muffins…

Subaru (embarrassed): Y-yeah…they were really good. (pepped up) A-and after become an official member you become eligible to get the recipe.

Soifon (face palm): All of Soul society thrown into Shambles…because of a breakfast product.

Subaru: In my defense, you probably would have liked them too.

Ichigo: I just can't wrap my head around this.

Shinjiro: Do you not see? I am your opposite. I am the Lelouche Vi Britania to your Renton Thurston. I am the Adachi Tohru to your Souji Seta. I am the Nero to your Guy Cecil. I am the voices around you, I am the voice inside of you! I AM JOHHNY YOUNG BASCH! (4)

Ichigo:…(face palm) Shinjiro sit down you've been standing in the sun for too long again….

---

1. That's actually not me giving him more jerk tendencies or stereotyping. It's an actual what's the word…belief? What I mean to say is that it was an ancient (people's) way of thinking. The more children a man and a woman had the more prosperous the family life would be. It's also one of the founding reasons why some guys are attracted to women because of their hips, reason being having curvy hips are a sign of being better suited to bearing children. The more you know, the better you are off after all.

2. Tenburenjin is that one move he does in the anime/manga where he swing his sword fast enough to knock down all the petals. The rough translation of the name is either 'Heavenly dance with god' or 'Gods parting of the heavens'. Ten=Heaven, Bu= Parting/Dance Ren=With Jin (Chinese)= God

3. It's a joke based on the fact several campaign ads for evil to get followers. One of them being 'Join evil/the dark side. We have muffins.'

4. All of this is actually true. JYB has played these roles.