Force of Souls Chapter 32 (Patreon)

Hey friends and fans, Kairomaru is bringing you another chapter of Force of Souls! With Ichigo taken back to the hidden location by Yoruichi in preparation for three days of training; what is everyone else up to? We know that Ganju and Hanatarō have been captured by Ukitake, so they’re ‘safe’ for the most part. But what about Orihime and Tatsuki? And where did Chad end up? Will things improve or start going belly up?

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So, without further delay, please enjoy.

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Chapter 32 – Philosophy, Suspicion, Captains

I just keep practicing
Saying goodbye to you

Chad didn’t know where exactly he was in the Seireitei; but he kept moving back towards the plateau where the Senzaikyū was. He was taking the most direct route that he could while avoiding the various patrols of Shinigami looking for the ryoka. It was slowly him down a good deal, but he knew that getting into pintless fights would only keep him from getting back to Ichigo and the others.

“I’ll get there as soon as I can, Ichigo.” Chad mumbled to himself as he used his ‘bastardized Shunpo’ as Kensei called it, to speed across a large open space in the blink of an eye. The less time he spent out in the open, the less he had to worry about being discovered. At least, that was the idea. Chad knew he was decent at hiding his Reiatsu and that his Reiryoku Control was good, thanks to Urahara and Kensei training him. What he couldn’t account for, however, was the sensing ability of another person…and just plain old bad luck.

As the tall young man took another turn and rushed down the street, he narrowed his eyes. Slowing down a bit, he approached the next corner with cautiousness. Something had most definitely changed from just a few minutes ago.

“It’s too quiet.” Chad said to himself; now noticing the lack of any sounds of patrols around the area. ‘Why do I feel a sense of trepidation? Something is here.’ He realized as he peeked around the corner and saw a plain courtyard, empty of anything save the white tiles that made up the ground and the white walls with orange-tiled roofs.

“Bakudō #62: Hyapporankan!” A male voice called out a split-second before Chad blurred forward. Dozens of white, hexagonal shaped rods slammed into the ground and wall where Chad had been not even a second ago.

Chad’s right arm transformed, the black and magenta armor covering the limb and flaring with Reiryoku.

“Damn… I was hoping that would pin you down so that this didn’t have to become a fight.” The same voice said and Chad saw the Shinigami that had cast the spell.

He was a tall and lean-built man with dark grey eyes, short black hair and three scars straight over his right eye that led down his cheek. Additionally, he had the number ‘69’ tattooed on his left cheek, as well as a blue-striped tattoo running across his left cheek and over the bridge of his nose. He wore a choker around his throat and matching armbands on both upper arms. The man wore a sleeveless shihakushō, and had his Lieutenant badge tied to his left arm.

‘A Lieutenant… That’s not good.’ Chad thought as he saw the badge on the Shinigami’s upper left arm.

“Can I ask you to surrender peacefully, ryoka?” The Shinigami questioned Chad.

Chad shook his head once. “I can’t do that. There’s somewhere I need to be and things I need to do.”

The Shinigami man sighed and drew his Zanpakutō. “I didn’t think so.” He pointed his Zanpakutō at Chad. “I’m Hisagi Shūhei, Lieutenant of Squad Nine.”

“Yasutora Sado.” Chad introduced himself. In the next second he threw his fist forward. “El Directo!” The powerful blast of blue Reiryoku destroyed the area that Hisagi had been standing in.

The blade of Hisagi’s Zanpakutō nearly took Chad’s arm off, if the young man hadn’t pulled it back as fast as he did. Chad blurred backwards to make some distance and rest his stance. Hisagi was in his face the same instant that he stopped, a punch slamming into Chad’s chest and taking him off his feet.

“Guh!” Chad hit the ground on his back. He got back to his feet without issue though. ‘His punch…’ The thought was left unfinished as Chad blocked a follow up punch with his transformed right arm and lased out with a left jab straight at Hisagi’s face. The punch was dodged and the blade of Hisagi’s Zanpakutō came at Chad’s throat.

BOOM

Chad expelled a blast of Reiryoku point-blank into the ground; destroying the tiles and cratering part of the large courtyard. The force had made Hisagi back off, while also providing some covering in the form of a large dust cloud in the air.

“Is he not affected by his own power?” Hisagi narrowed his eyes at the dust cloud. “If he is, it’s foolish to set off a blast so close to himself.”

“El Directo!” The blast of blue Reiryoku parted the dust, headed straight for Hisagi.

The Lieutenant vanished into a Shunpo.

Chad blurred forward with his own half-technique.

Blade met transformed fist.

BOOM

Another explosion rocked the area.

“Hadō #4: Byakurai!” Hisagi pointed his index and middle finger at Chad and a thin beam of compressed lightning shot forward, looking to pierce straight through the ryoka.

Chad had already moved again, this time closing distance as the two ‘wings’ on his right shoulder flared with Reiryoku. Instead of exploding forth, the Reiryoku suddenly compressed, and Chad’s arm slammed into Hisagi’s gut like a rocket, knocking the Lieutenant backwards from the unexpected speed and force.

“Ngh!” Hisagi ground his teeth as he managed to keep his feet under him. His stomach throbbed in pain, but he was fine, just a little bruised. “So, he can do more than just fire off those blasts, huh?” He raised his left hand and it glowed bright golden as he quickly cast one of the highest level spells he knew. “Bakudō #63: Sajō Sabaku!” Thick golden chains were formed from Reishi and snaked through the air towards Chad at blinding speed.

“MH!!!” Chad stabbed his transformed hand into the ground and tore up a chunk of it with his ridiculous strength. He tossed the rock and dirt at the incoming Bakudō and watched as the golden chains wrapped around it tightly before the huge object could even hit the ground.

Bam

The chunk of the ground hit the tiles heavily, shattering more of them, but having done exactly as Chad wanted.

‘Listening to Tessai-san paid off.’ Chad thought to himself, recalling what the Kidō Master had told him about Kidō when he wasn’t being beaten black and blue by Kensei over the course of the training. ‘Now I just need to know for sure.’ He blurred forward again, the Reiryoku flaring from his shoulder again as he sped towards Hisagi.

Hisagi saw him coming and pivoted at the last second to avoid the blast of Reiryoku from Chad’s fist. The blue Reiryoku turned the wall a few meters away into pebbles and debris, but now Chad’s outstretched arm was right in front of Hisagi. The blade of the Lieutenant’s Zanpakutō came down on the extended limb, preparing to remove it entirely this time.

Fwooooom

With a loud sound like the displacement of air, a second blast, much thinner and more focused, was launched from Chad’s fist without him moving his arm. He shot backwards just before the blade could hit him.

“You’re hesitating.” Chad said the instant he was standing across from Hisagi again. “Every time before you swing your Zanpakutō at me, you hesitate for a split-second.”

Hisagi looked at Chad impassively. “Do you want your arm cut off that badly?”

Chad didn’t reply, only readying his fists again as he took up his stance.

“He who fears not the blade he wields has no right to wield that blade.” Hisagi said as he readied his Zanpakutō again. He vanished into a Shunpo and swung his sword straight at Chad’s neck from the side.

Whap

Hisagi’s eyes widened in shock at seeing his blade caught by Chad’s transformed hand as easily as if the large man was catching a stick. “What?!”

Chad’s left fist slammed into Hisagi’s gut and nearly knocked the wind out of the Lieutenant. Unwilling to let go of Hisagi’s Zanpakutō, Chad tightened his grip and wailed on the other man with his left fist. A barrage of jabs hit Hisagi over and over again, the Shinigami managing to guard with his free hand as well, not willing to let his Zanpakutō be taken from him. With a flick against the metal band around his right upper arm in a second of slowness from Chad’s barrage, the square links flew towards Chad’s face and began to glow.

Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam

The unexpected blasts made Chad release the blade and jump back, but he threw another punch while doing so. “El Directo!” The blast of Reiryoku barely clipped Hisagi’s arm as he blurred away.

‘That attack is similar to Kidō…but not quite the same. It’s just a torrent of Reiryoku being launched from his fist. It’s almost like a Hollow’s Cero.’ Hisagi compared Chad’s attack to the only thing that he’d had similar experience with. ‘He’s also much more durable than normal, especially that weird arm of his. Given what I can sense of his Reiatsu, he’s barely at the level of an average Third Seat, but why is it that he can catch my blade?’

“I’m sorry.” Chad apologized as he stood across from Hisagi again. “But I don’t have time to drag out this fight. There’s somewhere else I need to be.” His Reiryoku spiked, and with it his Reiatsu pressed down on everything around him, as his left arm transformed as well, becoming the white limb with the spike on the shoulder and the red line going all the way up to the tip of said spike from his arm. “Brazo Izquierda del Diablo.”

Hisagi narrowed his eyes at the new transformation and the increased power that Chad was putting out. ‘His Reiatsu… It just jumped up to the level of a Lieutenant’s!’ With a grimace Hisagi vanished into a Shunpo and came at Chad with more speed than he’d used in their fight so far.

Ching

The blade glanced off Chad’s right arm while his left sparked with white light and came straight at Hisagi’s face for what would assuredly be a knockout. The Lieutenant jerked back, the white fist barely missing him, but he didn’t expect the punch to stop dead and for Chad to open his hand, exposing his palm. The next fraction of a second and Hisagi was smashed into the ground from the immense force that was unleashed.

BOOM

“Gah!” Hisagi cried out as he rolled away from the crater in the ground. It felt like he’d just been crushed by a pressure wave! “How the hell? That was totally different than what he’s been doing so far!”

“El Directo!” Chad punched at Hisagi with his right arm, unleashing the torrent of Reiryoku again.

Hisagi easily dodged the attack with a quick Shunpo. When he stopped it was to see a sparking white sphere almost right in his face. “Shit!” He sliced it in two with his Zanpakutō, but felt the entire sword vibrate from doing so. The two halves slammed into the wall behind Hisagi a fraction of a second later.

KABOOM

And detonated with far greater force than anything that Chad had shown so far. The wall and the ground around it were nothing more than one large crater now.

Chad was already in Hisagi’s face by the time the explosion happened. A serious of rapid jabs from his left arm forced Hisagi to backstep and weave to avoid the white sparks that came off the fist. He swung his Zanpakutō, but Chad’s right arm deflected it, leaving Hisagi open for a punch.

“Gnnnh!” Hisagi forced himself not to cough and hack out the breath that had just been driven form his lungs. The punch was strong, but it was the sparking white Reiryoku that caused the most damage, even from just a brief touch. More and more, Hisagi was comparing Chad’s power to that of a Hollow’s. When Chad punched forward with both arms at the same time, unleashing a combined torrent of blue and white Reiryoku at the Lieutenant, Hisagi knew he didn’t have a choice anymore. “Reap, Kazeshini.”

Shing

The beam of Reiryoku was sliced through and scattered as Hisagi’s Reiryoku spiked considerably and his Rieatsu nearly rooted Chad in place. Chad watched as a spinning…something…sliced apart his attack like a power saw cutting through paper. Only when Hisagi caught the weapon did Chad see it for what it was, a sort of kusarigama-like sickle and chain weapon, but with two blades attached by the chain, each blade also had a second blade on the back and reversed, with the cutting edge facing the sky.

“That’s your Zanpakutō?” Chad asked as he saw a slight green aura of Reiryoku around Hisagi for a moment before it settled down.

“Yes, but I’m not too fond of it.” Hisagi admitted as he held the sickle in his right hand up a little higher.

Chad cocked an eyebrow, though it was hard to see under his bangs. “I’ve never heard any of my friends mention not liking the forms of their Shikai before.”

“It’s nothing problematic with the form itself. But the shape it takes kind of irritates me. Just look at it…” Hisagi let the right sickle hang upside down from the chain. “Wouldn’t you agree that this shape is made for taking lives?”

Chad vanished in a blur.

Hisagi swung and threw the left sickle to the side. The spinning blade nearly cut through Chad’s torso if he hadn’t aborted his attack and juked to the right. The second blade was already spinning straight at Chad by the time his feet touched the ground again. The tall young man was forced to blur away again, only to be cut off by the left blade spinning into his path again. With his path cut off, Chad barely saw the white, hexagonal rods coming at him from the periphery of his vision.

“El Directo!” Chad blasted the incoming Bakudō with his right fist, shattering the rods into particles of Reishi that quickly dispersed. He had to blur away again to avoid having his head taken off by one of the spinning blades of Kazeshini. Everywhere he tried to go, Hisagi was on him though. A spinning blade to cut off his path, a Kidō launched at him from his blind spot, it was all Chad could do to keep up.

“It’s pretty difficult, huh?” Hisagi said as he saw Chad breathing hard from the continued use of what looked like a half-working Shunpo. “Predicting the trajectory of this thing?”

Chad didn’t say anything, knowing that Hisagi was keeping him on the run to wear him down. ‘He doesn’t want me getting close again.’ He looked down at his transformed arms and clenched both of his hands into fists. ‘Alright, if it’s to have Ichigo’s back…’ He blurred forward, knowing that range didn’t seem to matter with Hisagi’s Zanpakutō, the chain freely added or subtracted links to alter its length whenever it needed to. He charged straight ahead with the greatest speed that his bastardized technique could give him.

Hisagi narrowed his eyes and sent the right blade of Kazeshini spinning at Chad like a buzzsaw. It would cut off the right arm below the shoulder, but that was a small price to pay for the ryoka’s life.

FwoooOOOOSSSSHHHH

The two ‘wings’ on Chad’s right shoulder expelled focused Reiryoku like a jet’s afterburners. His blurring form vanished entirely as the spinning blade passed through the air where Chad used to be.

“Shit!” Hisagi brought the left blade up to cut Chad down as the young man appeared right in front of him.

Splrt

Blood flew through the air as Kazeshini was deflected, partially, by Chad’s right arm. The sickle blade had pierced the armor, but not deeply enough to remove the limb or anything. The defensive strength of Chad’s right arm was higher than his left by a considerable degree. But what the left arm lacked in defense, it more than made up for in offense.

“La Muerte!” Chad attacked with his left fist crackling with the potent white Reiryoku. His punch slammed into Hisagi’s gut with all the power Chad could muster. A blast of the white Reiryoku shredded Hisagi’s shihakushō, followed by a second blast that went straight into his body and made him hack up a mouthful of blood, and then a third blast rippled through Hisagi like a shockwave before escaping his back. The Shinigami Lieutenant was slammed back first into the far wall of the building that made up one side of the courtyard.

BOOM

Hisagi swore he heard something shrieking a deathly wail as his consciousness was nearly swallowed up by the dark.

Cracks spread across the wall from the force of the impact, forming a ghastly visage of a screaming skull if one looked at it from a distance. Embedded into the wall just below the wicked skull was Hisagi, breathing, but barely holding onto consciousness and clearly out of the fight. Kazeshini lay at his feet, once more sealed as Hisagi struggled not to pass out.

“I don’t know much about philosophy or a warrior’s code…” Chad said to Hisagi, holding his bleeding right arm with his left hand. “But you can’t put your all into anything if you’re always hesitating. It’s not the blade you carry that should scare you…it’s letting yourself misuse it.” He gave his opinion on Hisagi’s philosophy before he turned and walked away, continuing on his path back towards the Senzaikyū.

‘Beaten by a punk less than half your age…pathetic.’ An annoyed voice filled Hisagi’s head as his vision swam. ‘All because your head was filled with garbage by that blind fool.’

‘Shut…up…’ Hisagi thought back to Kazeshini as his swimming vision grew dark.

‘This is why you’ll never achieve Bankai.’ Kazeshini said coldly, needling Hisagi’s lack of progress over the last several years. The Zanpakutō went silent and let Hisagi pass out.

-Squad Twelve ~ Captain’s Office-

“Is it possible, Captain Kurotsuchi?” Ukitake asked after letting the scientist (many would call Mayuri a mad scientist, and not without good reason) look over the documents he’d brought with him for a few minutes.

Kurotsuchi Mayuri looked up at Ukitake from the papers the other Captain had brought to him. “In practice? No.” He said flatly while putting the papers down on his desk. “In theory? Yes.” A wide and almost twisted smile full of teeth spread across Kurotsuchi’s painted face. “How very interesting it would be, if true.” The Captain of Squad Twelve chuckled under his breath. “A Shinigami and a human…mating…producing viable offspring!” The scientist stood up from his desk, his eyes alight with curiosity. “I’ll need a sample from the subject to be sure, of course. Where was he last seen?”

“No need for that, Kurotsuchi.” Ukitake pulled out a small wooden box from within his shihakushō. He handed it over to Kurotsuchi and the other man quickly opened it.

“Your storage methods leave much to be desired, but with a fresh sample, that isn’t an issue.” Kurotsuchi’s wide smile got even wider (if that was possible) and his eyes focused solely on what was in the small box.

A single white cotton cloth…half soaked in fresh red blood.

Ukitake didn’t often like to play into Kurotsuchi’s less than moral nature, but the man was made the Head of Seireitei’s Research and Development Institute for a reason, despite his many moral failings. It was also only because Kurotsuchi Mayuri was kept on an extremely short leash by Captain Commander Yamamoto himself. Should the Captain of Squad One even think that Mayuri had stepped even a single toe out of line, he’d vaporize the man, the entirety of the Research and Development Division, and wipe all trace of him and his work from existence.

So far, the sword hanging over his neck had done amazingly well to temper Kurotsuchi’s more morally unsound ideas and experiments.

“Nemu, you foolish girl!” Kurotsuchi stuck his head out of his office door to yell at his daughter. “Take over operations until I return! I’ll be busy in my private lab!” He slammed the door closed without even waiting for a response.

“About how long before you’ll know for sure, Captain Kurotsuchi?” Ukitake asked the man who was already moving to gather a few necessary instruments.

Kurotsuchi looked over his shoulder at Ukitake. “If, as you suspect, the boy is of Shiba blood, then I’ll have the answer for you in mere minutes. Beyond that, I’ll be busy for a day or two just with my preliminary testing.” He uncaringly waved towards a single chair off in the corner. “You’re welcome to sit and wait for your answer. Don’t disturb me while I’m working.” That was the last thing that Mayuri said as he took the blood sample through a metal door that looked nearly identical to the wall that it was part of.

“I wonder if I’ll regret this?” Ukitake let out a heavy sigh. He had to know for sure though. That was the entire reason he’d collected the blood that had spilled from Ichigo’s wounds and onto the bridge at the Senzaikyū.

Ukitake was startled out of his thoughts and introspection a few minutes later, when the printer on Kurotsuchi’s desk activated and a piece of paper was drawn into the machine before coming out the other side with words and a graph on it.

“There are your results, Captain Ukitake. You may take them and leave.” Kurotsuchi’s voice crackled over a small speaker before going silent.

The white-haired Captain blinked at the dismissal, but knew that was just how Kurotsuchi was. He stood up from the chair and walked over to the printer. With a deep breath, Ukitake picked up the paper with the results on it and looked it over. The top of the paper was all he really needed though.

[Sample: Kurosaki Ichigo]

[Control: Shiba Isshin]

[Results: 100% Match for paternity]

“He is Captain Shiba’s son.” Ukitake stared at the results for a long moment. It brought up even more questions, of course. The biggest question of all: ‘How?’; it was impossible for Shinigami and humans to have children together. Most humans couldn’t even feel the presence of a Shinigami; much less see them, speak to them, or touch them. Even with a Gigai it was impossible, since the artificial bodies were just that: Artificial. They had no capability of bridging this impossible gap between living humans and the Shinigami. “More and more questions, but now there is finally physical evidence that Shiba Isshin survived and that something has been going behind the scenes these last several years…possibly even this past century.” He folded up the results and safely put them inside his shihakushō as he headed out of Squad Twelve’s labs.

There were others that needed to see this too.

-Chad-

Chad managed to slip away from the area he’d fought Hisagi in with some careful hiding and staying on the move when he couldn’t hide. But he’d managed to evade capture and anyone trying to follow him seemed to have been thrown off his trail for now. “Hm?”

Looking further down the street he was walking on; Chad noticed a large gate-like archway. As he got closer, he saw a matching one on the other end of another large, rectangular courtyard. There didn’t seem to be anyone around here, but Chad quieted his mind and let his awareness spread out to try and feel for any Reiatsu that might be suppressed at the moment. Not feeling anything, Chad decided that the best way to cross such open space was to do so quickly, straight across.

Nothing happened the entire time that Chad was jogging across the wide courtyard.

That is…until he noticed a flower petal fall in front of his face.

“Flowers?” Chad blinked and looked up to see more petals falling slowly to the ground, lightly dancing through the air as they descended. But his gaze quickly refocused as a pink haori with elegant floral depictions on it dropped from the above archway.

The cloth swirled around once as the person wearing it landed on the ground. With a bit of flair, the man stood up as the flower petals continued to fall around him. “I’m Kyōraku Shunsui, Captain of Squad Eight. Please to me you.” He smiled at Chad.

Captain Kyōraku was a tall, man with high cheekbones, grey eyes and long wavy brown hair. His hair was tied in a long ponytail and had long bangs that framed the left side of his face. He had thin facial hair around his mouth and on his cheeks. He also had a noticeable amount of body hair on his chest, feet, and arms. Kyōraku wore a sugegasa straw hat and the aforementioned pink, flowered lady's kimono, which he draped across his shoulders and over his shihakushō. He didn’t wear tabi with his sandals, leaving his bare feet exposed instead. One of the more notable things about the Captain was the daisho set of katana and wakizashi at his waist, rather than a single Zanpakutō.

“Captain…of Squad Eight?” Chad took his left hand of his injury and took up his stance that had been drilled into him by Kensei.

“Yes. Pleased to meet you…” Kyōraku trailed off as the flower petals in the air got heavier and heavier. He looked up at the balcony built into the archway and called out. “Nanao! Enough with the petals!” The woman in glasses that stood on the balcony ignored him, continuing to toss more and more flower petals into the air. “What? Do you hear me, Nanao?! Nanao! That’s enough! Save some for later! Oh, Nanao! Sweet, sweet, Nanao…lovely…precious Nanao…”

Nanao seemingly had enough of Kyōraku’s antics and dumped the entire basket of flower petals down onto him all at once, burying the Captain in them entirely.

“…” Chad blinked at what he’d just witnessed. “Sorry, but I don’t have time for your comedy routine. I’m just passing through.”

Kyōraku stood up from the pile of flower petals, many of the falling off his body and his hat. “Aw, can’t you play a while longer?” He brushed a few flower petals off his shihakushō. “Sheesh, nobody’s any fun nowadays.”

“I’m in a hurry. Please, step aside.” Chad took a step forward. “You don’t seem like a bad guy. I don’t want this to end in a fight.”

“Oh. I don’t want to fight either. But I can’t let you pass. Might I convince you to retreat?” Kyōraku requested with a smile.

Chad shook his head. “I can’t do that.”

Kyōraku closed his eyes with a small sigh. “I see. Then it can’t be helped.”

Thump

He set a sake jar on the white tiled ground and produced two sake saucers from within the sleeve of his robe. “Let’s have a drink! Like friends!” Kyōraku smiled brightly with his eyes closed.

“…huh?” Chad stared at Kyōraku, absolutely stunned by the sudden offer.

“You know… If you won’t retreat, then maybe you could just stay here.” Kyōraku offered with a relaxed grin.

Chad held up his hand. “I’m afraid I can’t.”

Kyōraku sighed as he poured himself a drink into one of the saucers. “That’s a shame. I was hoping that we could share a drink, do you not like sake?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never had any.” Chad said to the Captain. “The law says that anyone under twenty years old can’t drink alcohol.” He and the others still had a couple years before they could have their first alcoholic drinks together.

“Huh, an age limit, eh? I wonder when they implemented that?” Kyōraku sipped from his saucer with a hum. “To be fair, it’s been a good long while since I was last in the living world.”

Chad stepped to the side and continued walking forward.

“You should stay here, young man.” Kyōraku advised, stopping Chad in his tracks before he’d even taken three steps. “Don’t worry, it’ll all be over soon.” He finished off his saucer of sake and poured himself another while he talked. “The others are on the move even now. This unpleasantness will soon be finished.” Kyōraku set the jar back down now that his saucer was full again. “So until then…how about you sneak a drink with me? You’re not in the living world right now after all!” He joked with a laugh.

“Ichigo and the others…” Chad’s voice noticeably lacked any of the slightly warmth it had previously. “Are they being attacked by the other Captains right now?”

Kyōraku let out a sigh. “It seems I may have said too much.” Chad stepped forward. “Given that your group invaded the Seireitei, defeated practically the entire Eleventh Squad, have now beaten two of our Lieutenants, and two girls fought well enough to manage to escape from Captain Matsumoto, not to mention that one of our other Captains has been murdered… You can see why we’re taking more drastic measures now.”

“This changes things.” Chad was back in his fighting stance. “Kyōraku-san, please move now.”

“And if I say no?” Kyōraku sipped from his sake saucer.

Fwoooommm

Reiryoku flared from the two ‘wings’ on Chad’s right shoulder as he cocked back his fist. “Then I’ll move you!” He punched forward, unleashing a blast so large that it tore up the ground below it.

The incoming attack didn’t seem to phase Kyōraku at all as he sipped from his sake. Right before the torrent of blue Reiryoku could hit him, the Captain swiped his right hand in a wide arc and scattered all of the power to the wind in tiny flecks of glowing blue light that vanished a second later.

Chad’s eyes widened in shock at what had just happened. ‘He didn’t even stand up…’ Even more astounding was the fact that the Shinigami Captain was still sipping his sake until he finished off the saucer.

“Uh oh…” Kyōraku sighed in resignation. “Things are getting complicated.” He stood up and held Chad’s gaze even as the young man charged forward.

BOOM

“Missed.”

BOOM

“Missed.”

BOOM

“Missed again.”

Chad was breathing heavily, each breath coming in a ragged gasp as sweat nearly poured down his face. ‘How is he evading every attack?’ He wasn’t at one-hundred percent, he knew that much, but he’d managed to beat a Lieutenant. ‘Is there really this much difference between a Lieutenant and a Captain?’

“Look, you’re already exhausted and injured. You have a lot of firepower, far more than I’d ever expect from a human, but none of your attacks can hit me. Why don’t you give up and go home?” Kyōraku suggested, having casually dodged each and every attack that Chad had thrown at him.

“Thanks for the advice…but I can’t.” Chad’s right arm flared with more Reiryoku.

Kyōraku gave him a look. “Don’t do it.”

Chad threw his punch, blurring into Kyōraku’s guard at the last instant. The blast of Reiryoku destroyed the wall just to the left of the gate archway that Kyōraku’s Lieutenant was still standing on as she watched the fight. If one would be generous enough to call this a fight.

“You should know that there are two types of attacks.” Kyōraku was suddenly behind Chad, his index and middle finger on his left hand touching Chad’s transformed arm. “Attacks that can’t be performed at all once you’ve reached your limit; and attacks that can continue being used at the cost of your life force.” He applied the barest of pressure to Chad’s arm but the young man was blasted away by a powerful force and bounced off the ground twice before managing to stop himself. “Yours is obviously the latter type.”

Chad staggered back to his feet and swayed a bit before taking up his stance again.

“Why do you insist on fighting?” Kyōraku asked, while also giving Chad a break for a moment. “What is your purpose? Why did you come here?”

“My purpose…is to save Kuchiki Rukia.” Chad said as he slowly got his breathing under control.

“Kuchiki? She wasn’t even in your world for six months. You couldn’t have known her for very long. A thin friendship. Hard to believe it’s worth risking your life for.” Kyōraku looked at Chad with some confusion.

Chad began to gather Reiryoku into his left fist, making it start to spark with power. “You’re right. I hardly know her. Maybe I wouldn’t risk my life for her.” He adjusted his stance to give him the best acceleration. “But Ichigo wants to save her. Ichigo’s putting his life on the line. That’s reason enough for me to do the same.” Chad smiled at Kyōraku as the sparking white Reiryoku flared around his left fist before compressing down around it and becoming brighter. “That’s all the reason I need.”

“Ah, well…” Kyōraku smiled and tugged the rim of his hat down over his eyes. “Your resolve seems very strong. It would be disrespectful of me to try and talk you out of it.”

“Thank you.” Chad gave the older man a nod before he vanished from view, his feet leaving imprints in the white tiles.

WHAP

Chad’s left fist slammed into Kyōraku’s palm as the Captain blocked the punch. There was a pulse of the Shinigami’s Reiryoku and the power of Chad’s attack split in two, one half destroying the wall just to the right of the gate archway behind the Captain, the other flying off into the air at an angle where it wouldn’t hit anything.

‘He protected his Lieutenant.’ Chad realized why his Reiryoku had been split instead of just thrown aside like his first attack had been.

“I’m a lot older than young Hisagi.” Kyōraku saw Chad’s wide-eyed look and mistook it for confusion about why his most powerful attack hadn’t worked. “You don’t get to be my age without learning a few things and being kinda strong.” That was the last thing Chad heard before Kyōraku’s palm slammed into him with devastating force. Chad went flying and was unconscious before he hit the ground. “You’re a great friend, young man.”

-Tatsuki and Orihime-

“This Kidō of yours is really neat, Hime-chan.” Tatsuki marveled at Kyokkō as they snuck up the stairs of the plateau that led to the Senzaikyū. “Why didn’t we use this before?”

Orihime looked at Tatsuki while rubbing the back of her head. “Tessai-sensei warned me that any Shinigami that was good at Kidō would eventually notice it if they were around, and that Captains would be able to tear it apart easily. At my level it’s best to only use it when there aren’t many Shinigami around.”

“I could see that Captain Matsumoto being able to do that, I guess.” Tatsuki nodded, vividly remembering the beating they’d taken without the other woman even trying all that hard. “Still, we’re almost at this Senzaikyū place where Rukia is being held and no one is around. We might be able to get her out of here without anyone noticing.”

Orihime didn’t respond and Tatsuki looked at her girlfriend confused…only to see the wide-eyed look of fear on Orihime’s face. Tatsuki whirled around and drew Mōsho in the same movement and saw what had terrified her girlfriend.

A man with dark skin and dark brown dreadlocks tied back into a ponytail. He had his eyes closed behind a pair of clear goggles. What had clearly caused Orihime’s reaction was the Captain’s haori over the man’s shihakushō which was tied with a purple obi sash. He also had an orange scarf around his neck, white boots (instead of the normal sandals), and black, fingerless gloves on his hands.

In the time it had taken Tatsuki to observe the man, he’d reached out and grabbed the Bakudō hiding them. Before Orihime and Tatsuki’s eyes, he pulled it aside as a myriad of rainbow colors filled the air as the light bent and refracted all over the place before the spell failed and faded away.

“Shit!” Tatsuki swore loudly. “Ignite, Mōsho!”

“Reject, Shun Shun Rikka!” Orihime was already drawing her Zanpakutō as well.

“Forgive me, ryoka. It’s nothing personal, but we must maintain the peace.” The Captain said as he partially drew his Zanpakutō in the same instant that Tatsuki and Orihime began to release theirs. “Cry, Suzumushi.”

Before Orihime or Tatsuki’s Zanpakutō could change form, a sharp, piercing ringing sound resounded in their heads, disrupting their Reiryoku Control and overwhelming their senses. Both young women collapsed as their Zanpakutō stopped glowing, their releases canceled out by the loss of consciousness from Tatsuki and Orihime.

Kaname Tōsen, Captain of Squad Nine, had a single tear roll down his cheek as he sheathed his Zanpakutō, not having needed to even fully draw it to use his Shikai. “These pointless battles are at an end. Sleep now. Your struggles will be over soon.” He wiped the tear away and then flared his Reiryoku like a beacon, knowing it would attract the attention of all Shinigami nearby. He needed some help to take these two to the detention center with the other ryoka that had already been captured.

No one would know until much later that the reason Tōsen hadn’t chosen a much more lethal option was solely because he’d been ordered not to. It was still too soon to reveal the truth.

-End Chapter-

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Well…shit.

Chad manages to take down Hisagi, but ends up running into Kyōraku!

I hope everyone likes how I’m developing Chad, giving him more moves with his power instead of just ‘punch’ and ‘punch energy blast’. Our boy is learning different applications of his power to increase mobility, improve durability, and crank up attack power! He’s not just going to fall to the wayside in this story!

Orihime and Tatsuki managed to sneak up the plateau of the Senzaikyū, but met Tōsen there who managed to take them down before they could release their Zanpakutō! It’s almost like he knew they would be coming and was just waiting, huh?

Ukitake has gotten a small sample of Ichigo’s blood tested by Kurotsuchi! It’s been confirmed! Ichigo is indeed Captain Shiba Isshin’s son! Now Ukitake is planning to take this info to others that he trusts! What will such a reveal bring about in this invasion of Soul Society?

Will Ichigo wake up soon to begin the three days of training necessary for him to succeed?

Keep reading to find out!

Until I get your reviews, later!