Force of Souls Chapter 26 (Patreon)

Hey friends and fans, Kairomaru is bringing you another chapter of Force of Souls! Cannonball impact! The ryoka break into the Seireitei! However, there are THOUSANDS of Shinigami within that they might have to deal with. The goal is solely to save Rukia, but there’s definitely going to be a lot of opposition to that. Can the group manage to stay together, or will they be split up?

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So, without further delay, please enjoy.

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Chapter 26 – Intruders (Breakthrough the Roof Mix)

Creak, creak, tower of purgatory
Piercing the world like light
Sway, sway, tower of spine
Will it be us or the sky that falls?

Rukia looked out the thin window of the Senzaiky­ū, thoughts and feelings swirled about her mind. Worry for Ichigo, Tatsuki, and Orihime…undoubtedly all three had come (along with two others, apparently), and she didn’t know how to feel about it. On one hand, she was worried, fearful for their lives if they went against the Seireitei. On the other, her heart soared that her lovers refused to let her be taken away. With these two conflicting thoughts in her mind, she continued to look out the only window in the tower. “Such a narrow patch of sky.” She would’ve gone back to her inner thoughts, but the color of the sky suddenly changed. “The sky is…glowing?”

-Above the Seireitei-

Rrmmmmbb

The cannonball sparked as the barrier surrounding the Seireitei glowed brightly from the impact.

“It crashed into the barrier and stopped!”

“It wasn’t destroyed?” Captain Aizen looked up at the glowing object in surprise. “What spiritual entity could be so dense?”

None of the subordinates from his Squad could answer, all of them staring up at the absurd sight in the sky.

Rrmmmmmbb

KRAK

The cannonball forced its way through the barrier with a loud noise. The incredibly dense Reiryoku that made it up winning out in the struggle between the two opposing forces. Energy rippled across the surface of the barrier as if a stone had just been dropped into water.

“What the?” Ichigo watched as the cannonball slowly dispersed around them. The Reiryoku swirling around wildly, picking up speed as they hung in the air. “We made it through, but we’re not falling?”

“STAY TOGETHER!!!” Yoruichi’s deep voice boomed out. “The cannonball’s stability was stripped away by the barrier! The Reiryoku is going to swirl into a vortex! If we get separated by it then we’ll all be flung away in different directions!”

An odd sound, one that none of them could really describe, filled the air around them as the vortex of unstable Reiryoku collapsed in on itself.

“Holy shit!” Tatsuki cursed as the six of them were tossed around by what felt like gale force winds.

“Tatsuki!” Orihime cried out as she tried to reach for her girlfriend.

Ganju felt the air warp from the force of the vortex around him as he was being pulled away from the others. “No! No, no, no! I’m getting sucked in!” He tried to swim against the powerful current of energy.

“Got you.” Chad reached out and grabbed Ganju’s left forearm. “Ichigo!” He reached out with his free hand towards his best friend.

“Chad, I’ve got you!” Ichigo grabbed Chad’s wrist.

“Grab onto someone, now!” Yoruichi ordered, already feeling the fluctuation in the Reiryoku about to burst. “Don’t get separated!”

“A little late for that!” Tatsuki was fighting hard against the swirling Reiryoku, but she was already at the edge of the cannonball’s range.

“TATSUKI!!!” Orihime and Ichigo roared out simultaneously.

Yoruichi was suddenly behind Tatsuki, the black cat had all four paws on her student’s back. “Grit your teeth, Tatsuki-chan.” With barely any force, Tatsuki was sent rocketing into Orihime’s arms, while Yoruichi ended up flying out of the vortex. “You have to find a way to land safely! Remember, run from anyone of the Captain class immediately! Your goal is to rescue Kuchiki Rukia, so focus on that above all else!” With those quick orders, the black cat was launched away in a stream of bright orange-yellow light, looking similar to an arrow streaking across the sky.

“Orihime!” Ichigo reached out for her hand.

“Ichigo!” Orihime stretched her arm toward her boyfriend.

BOOM

Their hands never made contact.

The vortex had imploded and then released the force as the barrier reasserted itself.

Three orange-yellow streaks of light arced through the sky above the Seireitei in different directions as the Shinigami below all looked on in disbelief.

“They’ve split into three, huh?” The scarred visage of Zaraki Kenpachi grinned viciously as his single visible eye tracked the movement of the streaks of light. “Which one is it?” He eyed each of the lights as they arced across the sky. “Which one is the strongest?”

“I ended up alone.” In the first streak of light, Yoruichi contemplated on what this sudden separation would mean for the mission to rescue Rukia. “But perhaps this will prove to be more convenient.” Not like operating solo was anything new; and it offered the black cat more options on where to go and what information could be gathered.

In the second streak of light, Tatsuki and Orihime were rushing towards the ground a rather far distance from the initial point of impact with the barrier.

“We’re gonna crash!” Tatsuki cried out, seeing the ground rapidly approaching.

“Hold on to me, Tatsuki!” Orihime focused and channeled her Reiryoku into her hands. “Palanquin of night, center of the wheel. Six blue lines. Arrest the sky. Bakudō #37: Tsuriboshi!” A blue sphere was formed and think popped like a bubble. From the broken sphere of light, six lines shot outwards, attaching to nearby buildings, the light changed from Reiryoku to Reishi right before Orihime and Tatsuki landed on it.

“Whoa!” Tatsuki yelped as the center of the spell acted like a bungee pad, catching them as the six tethers stretched and brought their momentum to a safe stop before bouncing back upwards again. “That’s a new one.”

“Tessai-sensei taught it to me for emergencies.” Orihime smiled at her girlfriend.

Tatsuki pecked Orihime’s cheek before they both hopped down off the Bakudō. “We should probably get out of here before anyone comes to investigate.”

“Right.” Orihime agreed before looking at the Tsuriboshi and holding up her palm. A blue glow surrounded her hand for a second and the elastic spell faded back into Reiryoku, disappearing a second later. “Let’s go!” She jogged away with Tatsuki at her side.

Neither of them noticed that a pair of eyes had watched them the whole time.

-Ichigo, Chad, and Ganju-

The third streak of light rocketed towards the ground with the three men inside. Chad was about to activate his power to launched a blast at the ground, hopefully counteracting their speed and slowing their fall. But Ganju pushed Ichigo back and took the lead.

“Turn to sand!” Ganju moved his opened palm in a circular motion, a red light emitting from it. “Seppa!”

BAM

A large cloud of dust and grit was thrown into the air as the streak of light impacted the ground.

The dust cloud slowly settled to reveal a perfectly circular pit in the paved street. Inside the pit was sand, but seemingly nothing else.

“Gah!” Ichigo burst out of the sand, hacking and coughing to get the grit out of his mouth.

“Hack! Koff, koff, koff!” Ganju coughed roughly as he emerged from the sand, having impacted with his mouth open.

“Mnnn.” Chand stood up to his full height with a grunt, sand falling off him. He shook his head and sent sand flying out of his dark brown hair.

“Your weird spell saved us.” Ichigo turned to look at Ganju. “Thanks, Ganju.”

“Thanks.” Chad nodded to the other man.

“No…koff…problem.” Ganju pulled himself out of the pit with a shake of his head. “Don’t call that spell weird, dandelion-head.” He glared at Ichigo. “That’s Shiba Clan magic, I won’t let anyone insult it!”

“So that wasn’t Kidō?” Ichigo questioned as he and Chad climbed out of the sand pit too.

“Similar to it, but it operates on a different principle, so it doesn’t require an incantation and it’s not on the numbered list of Kidō.” Ganju explained briefly. “You make the sign of the trembling current and mold your Reiryoku through it to use the spell.” He tapped the spiral-like marks on his pant legs to show what he meant by ‘trembling current’. “That’s why the trembling current is the sign of the Shiba Clan.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” Ichigo shook out his shihakushō to get the sand out.

The loud sound of dozens of footstep was heard, and judging by the steady increase in volume, they were getting closer.

“I think we have company.” Chad mentioned looking towards the direction of the sound.

Sure enough over a dozen Shinigami came rushing around the corner.

“There they are!”

“Halt!”

“Get them!”

Ganju took a step back after seeing the large amount of enemies. “Figures that they’d all come at once! We should run and try to lose them!”

“Nah, this many shouldn’t be a problem.” Ichigo denied, cracking his knuckles. “Reminds me of last fall when Ōshima gathered up all those guys to try and jump us.” He looked over at Chad with a grin.

“About the same number of guys.” Chad nodded in agreement, rolling his shoulders.

“Are you two stupid? They’ve got us outnumbered five-to-one!” Ganju pointed out as the gathered Shinigami drew their various Zanpakutō.

The Shinigami charged forward and were met halfway by Chad and Ichigo.

“Gakh!” The first Shinigami went down to Chad’s fist, the normally gentle giant slugging the attacker before he could swing his sword.

Ichigo sidestepped a downward slash and rocked the Shinigami’s head with a right hook. The man staggered from the blow and collapsed to the paved street a second later. “Next!”

“You little!” A Shinigami leapt at Ichigo, Zanpakutō raised to cut the orange-haired teen down. “Duagh!” He doubled over as Chad came in from his blind spot to deliver a powerful blow to the man’s stomach.

“Nice, Chad!” Ichigo grinned at his buddy, launching a snap kick into the face of a Shinigami going for his friend’s back. The Shinigami flew backwards and slammed into the ground with the wind knocked out of him.

The two of them had a few years of experience being on the bad side of a numbers disadvantage and it showed in how soundly they were beating the Shinigami attacking them.

“What the hell?” Ganju blinked at seeing the number of Shinigami already laid out. ‘They’re only using hand-to-hand, but they’re winning.’

“Hyah!” One Shinigami swung at Chad from his blind spot. His Zanpakutō was stopped dead as Chad caught it in his transformed right hand. “Huh?” The Shinigami gaped at seeing the strange armor over Chad’s arm. He briefly wondered when the change had happened, until he was forced to his knees as Chad pressed down on the blade he’d caught. “Grnnk!” The Shinigami ground his teeth from Chad’s strength, his arms shaking. ‘How can a ryoka have this much Reiatsu?!’ His question would go unanswered as Chad’s knee slammed into him and sent him crashing into the wall off to the side.

“Ack!” Blood flew from the Shinigami’s busted nose and lip as he crumpled to the ground, Ichigo having dropped him with a back fist to the face.

“Tah!” Another Shinigami tried to cut Ichigo down from behind.

Ichigo pivoted on his left foot and grabbed the man’s wrist, stopping the horizontal slash cold. The next thing the Shinigami knew was the pain of his back slamming into the ground hard enough to crack the tiles below as Ichigo executed a near-perfect Taketonbo.

“Gugh!” A Shinigami’s feet left the ground and his Zanpakutō fell from his hands as Chad’s transformed right fist drilled him straight in the jaw. The man was unconscious before he hit the ground.

“H-How the hell?” Ganju could only stare, seeing all of the Shinigami that had come at them lying on the grown in various states of injury or unconsciousness.

“That was the last of them, nice work, Chad.” Ichigo fist bumped his best friend.

“You too, Ichigo.” Chad returned the fist bump with a grin.

“Yahoo! Lucky me!” A loud voice called out from behind the three ryoka.

Ichigo’s eyes widened at not having sensed anyone around until the man had spoken. Likewise, both Chad and Ganju quickly turned around to face the new unknown person.

Two Shinigami leapt off of the roof of a nearby building and landed before the three ryoka.

One of the Shinigami was a tall, lean-built man. He was bald and his eyes each had a small red marking at the outer corner. He wore the standard Shinigami shihakushō, with the exception of having no tabi with his sandals. His Zanpakutō was also held in his left hand, rather than being worn at his hip.

The other Shinigami was vastly different from the first. He was shorter than his friend and had noticeably shiny skin, with purple eyes, and jaw-length black hair. The man had colorful feathers on his right eyelashes and eyebrow, which gave him a somewhat feminine appearance. He also wore the standard Shinigami shihakushō, but with some customizations. An orange piece of clothing sat on top of his uniform around the neck, which covered most of his chest that would otherwise be exposed by the shihakushō. This was connected to an orange sleeve on his right arm that was under the much looser fitting sleeve of the uniform. It clearly showed that this particular Shinigami cared about how he looked compared to others. His Zanpakutō was held on his hip properly, unlike his friend.

“We were staying over here to avoid being deployed and the intruders practically fell into our laps.” The bald Shinigami grinned. “Lucky, lucky, me. It’s my lucky day!” He sang a little tune before pointing his sheathed Zanpakutō at the three ryoka. “But it’s not so lucky for you.”

“Huh?” Ichigo looked at the bald man, recognizing a challenge to fight when he saw one.

-Yoruichi-

The black cat came down in a streak of light. Golden eyes narrowed at seeing a group of Shinigami rushing towards the area already.

“Here it comes! Get ready!” A blonde Shinigami ordered the subordinates behind him. All of them drew their Zanpakutō, ready to fight the invader as soon as they landed.

The light burst apart right before the groups’ eyes, briefly blinding them.

“Whoa!”

“Huh?”

“It disappeared?”

The blonde Shinigami looked around, searching for the invader. “Did anyone see the invader?”

“No, sir!” The Shinigami shook their heads. No one had seen anything except the bright flash of light.

“Spread out and search! They couldn’t have gone too far!” The blonde ordered the group to hunt for the missing intruder.

Form the rooftop of a nearby building, Yoruichi watched the multiple Shinigami rush off in different directions, checking every path, alleyway, and dead end they could find for any trace of their missing ryoka. “Hmm, I’ll have to trust that the others will be alright for now.” The masculine voice of the cat mused. “Still, this separation does provide an opportunity or two for me to look into a few things.” The cat vanished from the rooftop without a sound.

-Ichigo, Chad, and Ganju-

“Luh, luh lucky~” The bald Shinigami was doing an odd dance, much to the stunned silence of the three ryoka. “Luh, luh, luh, lucky~!” He finished off his dance with a pose, settling into a wide horse stance while holding his sheathed Zanpakutō horizontally in front of him with both hands. “Lucky!”

“Uh…” Ichigo didn’t know how to respond to this situation. Ganju and Chad weren’t any better, both of them just string at the bald Shinigami.

Silence was clearly not the response the man was looking for though. “Hey! What the hell are you three waiting for? I was doing my lucky dance to give you time to decide which of you would fight me! Don’t just stand there slack jawed!” The bald Shinigami was clearly annoyed by the three ryoka, his face turning slightly red as a vein pulsed on his forehead. “Don’t you recognize generosity of spirit when you see it?!”

“Who the hell is this guy?” Ichigo deadpanned.

“Hey.” Ganju whispered to Ichigo.

“What?” Ichigo whispered back, not taking his eyes off of the two Shinigami.

“What do you think?!” Ganju’s tone was sharp. “Let’s get out of here!”

“You want to run?!” Ichigo nearly whipped around to yelled at Ganju.

For his part, Ganju just looked at Ichigo like the younger man was dense. “You idiot! Can’t you tell?! These guys have WAY too much power for a newbie Shinigami like you to handle!” If the Reiatsu that he was feeling right now was the controlled state for these two, then their overall Reiryoku must be staggeringly high.

“What’re you two arguing about?” The bald Shinigami questioned, once more resting his sword over his left shoulder. “I hope it’s about which one of you is going to fight me already!”

“If we wait too long, then others will show up and we’ll have to share the credit and glory with them.” The more effeminate-looking man spoke up to remind his friend.

“That’s true…” His battle-hungry friend hummed thoughtfully. “Fine then, if you don’t hurry up, then I’ll decide which one of you I fight first!”

Ganju was already running in the opposite direction. “I’m outta here! If you want to fight, you’re on your own!”

“Huh?” The bald Shinigami blinked at the man running away. “Did you guys have a falling out or something?”

“Something like that?” Ichigo looked slightly annoyed at Ganju running off.

“Fleeing won’t do him any good.” The battle-hungry Shinigami scoffed. “Yumichika.”

“I’ve got him.” The other man leapt over Ichigo, Chad, and the sand pit easily before taking off after Ganju.

“Damn! I knew it! One of them is chasing me!” Ganju cursed as he picked up his speed.

“Chad, can you go help that guy.” Ichigo requested of his best friend. “This guy clearly wants to fight one-on-one.”

“Where will we meet up later?” Chad asked simply, trusting Ichigo to have properly gauged his soon-to-be opponent’s strength.

“We’ll figure that out later.” Ichigo’s reply was simple and came from the fact that none of them, aside from Yoruichi, perhaps, knew anything about the Seireitei. “Focus on why we’re here and we’ll meet up again.”

“Got it.” Chad nodded before blurring after Ganju and the Shinigami called Yumichika with his bastardized Shunpo.

The purposefully loud step of the bald Shinigami got Ichigo’s attention. “Tell me something. Why didn’t you run? Your friend ran because he sensed that our powers were far greater than his own, right? If you ask me, I think he made a wise decision.”

“If your power is greater than mine, then it would be pointless to run, you’d catch me for sure.” Ichigo replied to the other man. “But if your power is less than mine,” He placed his hand on Shingetsu’s hilt. “Then I just have to beat you. That’s how I see it.” His eyes were sharp as he stared the other Shinigami down.

“I see. Then you’re a fool.” The Shinigami replied, the air starting to fill with his Reiatsu as his face was shadowed. In an instant his sword was drawn and slamming into the spot where Ichigo had just stood, cracking the tiles of the paved street. ‘He dodged it?!’

Ichigo drew Shingetsu and made to cut the other Shinigami down in the same motion.

‘Nice moves.’ The bald Shinigami grinned wildly as he raised his scabbard to block.

‘He used the scabbard?!’ Ichigo hadn’t expected that, he noticed the blade coming at him from the side and kicked his opponent in the stomach. This let Ichigo make distance while also stunning and slightly injuring his opponent. Not giving the other man time to recover, he attacked.

“Hah!” The Shinigami had an excited smile on his face as he countered Ichigo’s attack.

Blood went flying into the air for a second, then began to drip on the ground.

The two Shinigami stood facing each other, neither backing down.

“Just in case, I’ll ask your name.” The bald man looked at Ichigo.

“Kurosaki Ichigo.” Ichigo gave his name.

“Ichigo, eh? That’s a good name.” The man complimented.

“It is? Nobody ever told me that before.” Ichigo replied.

“Yes. Men whose names begin with ‘I’ are usually good-looking and talented.” The bald man stated as if it were simple fact. “I’m the Third Seat of Squad Eleven, Madarame Ikkaku!” He assumed his stance, his Zanpakutō in his left hand while his scabbard was held in the right. “Since our names start with the same character, we should be friends!” He grinned even though there was a gash above his eye from Ichigo’s blade, leaking red blood down part of his face and onto the ground.

“Hell no.” Ichigo denied, a matching cut above his eye, though he couldn’t say if Ikkaku had targeted the same spot on purpose or not. Should we move this a bit further away from these guys?” He nodded towards the downed Shinigami that he and Chad and laid out.

“They’re from my Squad, so they’ve all had worse.” Ikkaku disregarded the injuries of the other Shinigami. “But if you want to run, feel free.”

“Like that’s going to happen.” Ichigo slowly walked sideways, Ikkaku copying his speed as they moved the fight further away from the injured men strewn over the road.

Ichigo removed one hand from the hilt of Shingetsu to wipe away the blood falling into his eye.

“Only a novice would remove his hand from his sword when confronted by an enemy.” Ikkaku scoffed at Ichigo for leaving himself open.

“Shut up.” Ichigo shot back. “You want me to fight with only one eye? I had to do something about it.”

“Even shallow wounds above the eye bleed profusely.” Ikkaku spoked from experience as he removed the kashira of his Zanpakutō and revealed it to have some kind of ointment inside. “Wiping the blood away isn’t going to fix that. It’s better to apply a medicine to stop the bleeding.” He rubbed the beige ointment across his injury to seal it and stop the bleeding.

“You have medicine to stop bleeding?! That’s not fair!” Ichigo accused Ikkaku loudly.

“It is so fair! It’s called being prepared!” Ikkaku shouted back. “You should be applauding my professionalism!” Seeing Ichigo not doing that, Ikkaku moved on. “Heh. You’re a strange one. You behave like a novice, and yet your reactions are first-rate, your swing is powerful, and your movements approach my level.” He pointed at himself while eyeing Ichigo suspiciously.

“Huh?” Ichigo looked annoyed at being compared to Ikkaku.

“Don’t look so fierce. I’m giving you a compliment.” Ikkaku assured the younger man. “I’m saying that you’re too good to dismiss as just a lucky battle-crazy novice.” He narrowed his eyes at Ichigo. “Who is your master, Ichigo?”

“Not sure I can call him a master…he only trained with me for about ten days, and annoyed the hell out of me the entire time.” Ichigo remembered that clearly. “But he did teach me how to fight better.”

“Who?” Ikkaku didn’t much care about Ichigo’s memories, just who had taught him.

“Urahara Kisuke.” Ichigo answered and noticed the slight flinch from Ikkaku as the bald man’s eyes widened. ‘I guess Ikkaku’s old enough to know who Hat n’ Clogs is.’

“I see… So, he is your master?” Ikkaku’s expression changed, becoming much more serious. “Then it would be disrespectful to kill you the easy way.” He slammed the pommel of his sword into the end of his scabbard. “Extend, Hōzukimaru!” The sword and scabbard both glowed before forming into a single object in Ikkaku’s hands.

“A spear?” Ichigo narrowed his eyes at Ikkaku’s Shikai.

Ikkaku’s Shikai was indeed a spear, with a single bladed edge and a large red tassel on the butt of the staff.

“There’s no time to be surprised, Ichigo! Are you ready?!” Ikkaku called out loudly. “Don’t misjudge it!”

“I won’t!” Ichigo knew that the reach of a spear made it hard to fight with a sword thanks to Urahara. He sidestepped Ikkaku’s first thrust that was aimed at his head. He was then besieged by a flurry of attacks from the butt of the spear as Ikkaku flipped it around. The red tassel’s function became abundantly clear as it obscured the end of the weapon. Ichigo was on the backfoot as he struggled to block and weave around the relentless stream of strikes.

“I knew that spear had a long reach! You thought I’d misjudge that?!” Ichigo knocked back the end of the spear with his sword.

“No.” Ikkaku stated as he flipped the spear around and swung it at Ichigo, this time seemingly trying to strike with the staff part of the weapon.

“Huh?” Ichigo was confused by Ikkaku’s response and at the odd way he had just tried to attack.

“Split Apart!” Ikkaku commanded and the spear’s shaft split into three sections, allowing int to swing around Ichigo via the chain linking the sections.

Ichigo’s eyes widened as the blade of Ikkaku’s spear came at his face. “Bakudō #8: Seki!” A small blue orb appeared in the path of Hōzukimaru blade. The edge touched the blue energy and was immediately rebounded in the opposite direction with the same speed and force!

“Kidō, huh?” Ikkaku easily caught the top section of his Zanpakutō as he looked at Ichigo appraisingly. “I didn’t expect that from the look of you.”

“Just because you’re no good at it doesn’t mean that I won’t use it.” Ichigo replied to the jibe.

“You misjudged exactly what I thought you would.” Ikkaku smirked at Ichigo. “Hōzukimaru isn’t a spear. It’s a bladed sansetsukon (three-section-staff).”

“Seeing as how you’ve shown me your Shikai, I’ll show you want my sword can do, Ikkaku.” Ichigo held Shingetsu at the ready, making Ikkaku take up a ready stance in response. “Bring down the empty heavens, Shingetsu.”

Shingetsu’s tsuba became silvery with stylized black arrows all pointing to the base of the blade. The blade itself didn’t change shape, but turned jet-black. The small changes made Ikkaku raise an eyebrow at the Zanpakutō, wondering what it was supposed to do.

“Hup!” Ichigo leapt at Ikkaku and swung his sword down on him. It was a textbook Suikawari downward slash. For a Shinigami as skilled and experienced at combat like Ikkaku, it couldn’t have been easier to block.

Ikkaku moved the bladed end of H­ōzukimaru to block the attack from the black sword. His eyes widened the second that he felt the actual power within the simple strike. He only experienced the gravity of Shingetsu for an instant, but it allowed the sword to cleave the blade of his Zanpakutō in half and then cut him directly, leaving a deep laceration on his chest. This was instantly followed with gravity seemingly multiplying and crushing Ikkaku into the ground. The attack didn’t stop there though, as the ground also shattered and then compressed. The stones and pavement cracked and Ikkaku felt as if the weight of a mountain was pressing down on him as he hacked up blood from the pressure.

“Sorry, Ikkaku, but I don’t have time to waste.” Ichigo spoke to the barely conscious man.

“How…unlucky…” Ikkaku breathed out, blood dribbling from the side of his mouth and his entire body starting to form bruises from being crushed by the gravity of Shingetsu. The laceration on his chest was still bleeding badly too. He closed his eyes, even against his own will, as his consciousness began to fade. If he were to die now, his only regret was not getting to serve Captain Zaraki longer.

Ichigo sighed as he sealed Shingetsu and returned his Zanpakutō to its scabbard. “Yeah, we’re all unlucky right now.” He noticed that the damaged H­­ōzukimaru had returned to its sealed state after Ikkaku lost consciousness. The blade was broken in two, but the Zanpakutō was in better shape than it could’ve been had it take a direct hit from Shingetsu. “Ichigo eyes the pommel of Ikkaku’s sword and sighed while looking over at the wound he’d inflicted on the other Shinigami’s torso. “I’m taking some of that for helping you.” He picked up the damaged sword and pulled the kashira off to get to the beige-colored ointment inside.

Ichigo hoped that Chad and Ganju were having less trouble with the other Shinigami. He wanted to find out where Tatsuki and Orihime were and meet up with them, but he had no idea where they’d ended up landing in the Seireitei.

“Rukia…” Ichigo dabbed the ointment onto the cut above his eyes to stop the bleeding. “We’re coming to save you. No matter what.” He promised quietly as he moved on to applying the ointment to the massive cut on Ikkaku’s torso. Something about letting the bald man die just didn’t sit right with Ichigo, so he’d at least stop the bleeding before he left to find out where Rukia was.

-End Chapter-

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Well…shit.

Everyone got separated, but at least this time it was into two groups (plus Yoruichi going solo) and not splitting into four.

Ichigo and Chad are the Bash Brothers! Kek! Bring on your fodder Shinigami! They’ll lay them all out!

Orihime saves the day for her and Tatsuki, both girls quickly get away from their landing area. Unfortunately, someone had already seen them and was watching. That may not be good.

Ichigo and Ikkaku’s fight doesn’t last nearly as long as Canon, Ichigo has both Kidō and Shingetsu, so his powerset is completely different. Not to mention that Ichigo doesn’t feel like he has time to waste. He wants to save Rukia as soon as possible.

But with the sudden (and quick) defeat of a Third Seat as strong as Ikkaku, will the ryoka be seen as a more substantial threat than they were in Canon?

Keep reading to find out!

Until I get your reviews, later!