Kuroda sighed heavily, this was not good. He knew he shouldn't have taken off his arm band.
As it turns out, the band itself had been ripped apart, whether it was during the fighting with Tokage or simply when he'd taken it off he couldn't tell. But this was bad, really bad.
He stared solemnly at the piece of leather in his hand, losing this was like losing his right arm, and he needed it just as much too. Maybe Kisuke would be able to fix it, or at the very least make a new one for him. He certainly hoped so.
With another sigh, he placed it into his pocket.
First order of business was to readjust himself to his new level of power, having not removed that band in probably years; he was unintentionally releasing huge amounts of reiatsu. Taking a brief moment, he took in a deep breath and quickly lowered his output.
With that problem taken care of, he calmly walked back up the stairs.
When he arrived back at the top of the stairs, he could clearly hear Yoruichi's voice from behind the door. It sounded like he teasing voice, so it was safe to assume that she had won.
She always used that voice when she won. Especially with him.
Kuroda remembered when she'd beat him in a race and had teased him to no end in that exact voice, oh the humiliation he endured.
With that happy thought in his head, he pushed through the door. The room he stepped into reminded him of the lab Kisuke had set up in the 12th division. It was full of machines that he didn't understand and a lot of blinking lights that he imagined meant something but he was too busy to find out what.
In the center of it all was Yoruichi, standing on top of a very badly beaten Heijin, all tied up and ready to be interrogated.
"I see you've got some payback for the trouble the discomfort he caused you earlier," commented Kuroda as he walked toward his friend.
"Well, he put up a little flight," replied Yoruichi, "I don't know how this guy even became a vice captain, he's way too weak."
"Bitch," muttered Heijin weakly, "I'll tear your-"
Whatever Heijin was going to say was quickly cut off when Kuroda kicked him in the ribs.
"Has he said anything yet?" he asked,
"No," replied Yoruichi, "I can't get him to spill anything, but may Mr. Former Black Ops can."
"Well," said Kuroda as he kneeled down in front of his victim, "it's been a while, but I'll give it a shot."
"Do you two need to be alone?' asked Yoruichi teasingly,
"Very funny," he muttered.
Cracking his knuckles, he immediately got to work.
"Alright," he started, "most interrogations start off with the guy doing the interrogation trying to negotiate with the victim. So I'll start from there."
Kuroda suddenly grabbed Heijin by his hair and pulled back on it so that Heijin had no choice but to look up at him.
"Will you tell us what we need to know?" he asked nicely,
"Screw you," Heijin spat,
"Well, I tried," said Kuroda, Yoruichi raised her eyebrow and gave him a skeptical look. Kuroda shrugged and punched Heijin in the face.
"How about now?" asked Kuroda,
"Your sophisticated interrogation techniques are lacking," spat Heijin,
"Okay, new tactic," decided Kuroda, he freed Heijin's right hand and placed it under his left boot ,then said "you've got once chance."
Heijin responded by spitting blood onto his boot.
"Fair enough," replied Kuroda, with a simple shift of weight, he broke the man's thumb. Heijin screamed in pure agony and let loose a string of wild and colorful curses.
Most men would have cringed at the sight of the tortured soul and even more so at the sight of what Kuroda had done to the man's thumb. But Kuroda did not turn away, he stared at the scene as if it were like water coming out of a faucet.
When the screaming died down, Kuroda moved his boot onto the man's ring finger.
"How about now?" asked Kuroda casually, when the man gave no response, Kuroda added, "if you feel like it, you can start by telling us what you're doing here."
Heijin spat out a glob of blood and said, "Nothing much, just playing a little mad scientist with hollows."
"Be specific," ordered Kuroda
"Say please," taunted Heijin,
"Wrong answer," said Kuroda and crushed the man's ring finger.
Heijin once again howled in pain, he squirmed in his bounds like some fish out of water. Kuroda did not even flinch as he moved his boot over the man's middle finger.
Heijin soon tired himself out, unable to scream any longer he answered, "I was studying the process that hollows take to become Arrancar. I was curious as to why they needed to eat each other in order to do so."
"And?"
"I found out, that with each of their own that they eat, they take in more and more reiatsu. As they expanded the amount of reiatsu they contained, their body compensated for the changes," he managed to say through his panting,
"That is why they take on different forms," he continued, "eventually, they completely change their physical characteristics. That's when they become what we recognize as gillian, adjuchas and vasto lords."
"See, was that so hard?" asked Kuroda maliciously, "alright, so we know what you were doing, but I want to know how Tokage fits into all of this."
"What about him? He's a test subject, albeit a successful one but still just a test subject," replied Heijin,
"Shut up and tell me what you did to him," ordered Kuroda, putting a bit of pressure down on the man's finger.
"I'm not telling you, you'll just steal my work and give it to that damned soul society!"
Wrong thing to talk about, Kuroda did hesitate in crushing another finger, followed up by breaking Heijin's nose with his foot. Kuroda didn't even flinch as he heard the cartilage break from the impact of his boot.
Blood began to ooze out of Heijin's nose into a steady pool on the floor.
"We don't work for soul society anymore," said Kuroda as he circled his victim, "we're here on our own time. Now either answer my question, or the next time you lose a whole hand. I'm tired of getting blood on my boots."
"Alright, alright," said Heijin hastily, "just don't cut off my hand."
"Then start talking," growled Kuroda,
"I turned him into an Arrancar," said Heijin,
"I can see that, I'm the one who killed him. But I want to know how you turned him into one. There aren't exactly many books on how you can do that."
"I transferred reiatsu into him," Heijin managed to sputter through pants,
"How?"
"With that," he said, weakly pointing to a machine in the middle of the room, "all you do is sink reiatsu into it. Press a few buttons, and it transfers that reiatsu into whatever you want it to go into."
"So that's how you did it, but where'd you get the reiatsu?"
"What are you talking about? I just put it in myself."
It was an obvious lie, and it was swiftly rewarded with a kick to the ribs.
"Don't lie to me, you with your level of reiatsu I'm surprised you're even holding a zanpaktou. Now tell me or I'll cut your hand off."
"Alright," he said, "I took it from you guys. It's why I sent out those two Espada after you. I needed you to release as much reiatsu as possible. My machine collected it from your fight and used it to Tokage into an Arrancar."
"See, was that so hard to say?" asked Kuroda as he mockingly patted the man on the head, "last question. Who are you working for?"
"What are you talking about? I work for myself," said Heijin,
"How do you know he works for someone?" asked Yoruichi,
"Please, you really think this guy could create a place like this without alerting Soul Society, or gotten two high level Arrancar to work for him? No, I think someone is backing him up," he said, "so, you're going to tell me who."
"No way, that's the one thing I'm not telling you," shouted Heijin,
"Not the answer I wanted," said Kuroda.
Heijin watched in terror as Kuroda devilishly slid his katana out of its sheath and brought it over his hand.
"Please! You have to understand, if I tell then they'll kill me!" pleaded Heijin with every fiber of his being.
"Uh huh, who says I won't?" asked Kuroda, "it's not like you really mean anything to me. Your death could even be the highlight of my week. I think I'll take a picture of your mangled corpse and hang it in my living room."
"Ew," muttered Yoruichi,
"But first, the hand," said Kuroda as he raised his sword,
"You have no idea what he's like! He's beyond any of you, he'd kill you all with but a flick of his wrist. When he finds out what has happened here, he'll burn you all alive!" screamed Heijin,
"I've already given him all my data, he'll use it to achieve his true goals! I'll go down in history!" he continued on.
Kuroda had heard enough, he swung towards Heijin's hand in hopes of shutting the annoying man up. But the former Black ops commander had underestimated just how far he'd pushed his prisoner, Heijin immediately rolled into the swords arc and let it sliced through his neck.
The man died with a gurgling his own blood.
"Crap," muttered Kuroda,
"I didn't see that one coming," muttered Yoruichi solemnly,
"He was more scared of his boss then he was of death, that certainly tells us something."
"Well, we at the very least got some information out of him," said Yoruichi, "thanks for the help, I probably wouldn't have been able to get all of this without you."
"I'm sure you would have managed," assured Kuroda as he sheathed AnShen, "you're a resourceful gal."
"I'm sorry," she said with a chuckle, "was that a compliment?"
"Let's go," he said, ignoring her teasing
"Changing the subject huh?"
"I said let's go!" he yelled as he pushed out through the door.
Yoruichi's eyes twinkled mischievously as she giggled to herself. Despite everything that had just happened in the past 10 minutes, she was having too much fun.
It wasn't long before they managed to find the gate out of the place and pop back into Karakura town.
"Let's...never do that again," suggested Kuroda,
"I don't know, I had a lot of fun," said Yoruichi,
"Tch,"
"I'm serious," said Yoruichi, "after all, I got to have a great fight, get a lot done, and spend time with you, doesn't' that sound like a good day Kuroda? Kuroda?"
The purple haired woman turned to see the tall man facing away from her with his head drooping down as if he were hiding something.
"Are you okay?"
Kuroda wanted to say "no, my face is the color of a tomato" but instead he said, "I'm fine, I'm just very tired."
"I know what you mean," she said as she attempted to stifle a yawn, "I could use some sleep myself."
Kuroda did not like the sound of that, to most people what she just said sounded like casual conversation. But don't let that fool you. She was probably setting him up for something as I write this. She's carefully edging him into whatever position she wants him to be in, because that's what she does. She edges people.
He had to be very careful how he spoke his next words.
"..."
Just give him a moment.
"..."
He's getting to it.
"So where are you going to go sleep? Kisuke's?"
"Nah, I thought I'd crash at your place."
"Crap," he whispered, yep, she got him.
"Why me," he muttered to himself as he began to walk...uh...float, back to his apartment.
He was about to turn around and see if she was following him when something soft and rather heavy slammed into his back.
"Argh, what the-" he turned his head and saw that Yoruichi had flung herself on him piggy back style, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. Yeah, not a good position for him.
"I'm tired, carry me back please," she muttered lazily,
"Yoruichi, act your age and-"he cut himself off when Yoruichi's eyes grew large and sparkly, lips curled into a cute little smile while she stared innocently at him.
"Pwease?"
"No, that's not going to work," he said weakly, though his heart was telling him, "come on, go ahead, carry her, while she presses her body against yours."
"Its...not...going to..."
3...2...1,
"Fine," he finally said, his head drooping in defeat.
"Thank you!" she said while giving him a big hug from behind.
"Why me?" he muttered weakly. With nothing left to do, he began to walk with a purple haired cat woman on his back, all the way back home.
"I don't know how you managed to convince me to do this," he said out loud, "no matter how many times I see it, when you whip that face out, I immediately do whatever you want. That is just not right."
"It's because you're such a softy," she murmured,
"I am the former Captain of Black Ops, I hardly think that being soft allows me to hold such a job," he reminded her, "in that outfit you have to be cold as steel and hard as a-"
"blah blah blah," she interrupted, "you just can't admit you're a softy."
"You're enjoying this aren't you?"
Yoruichi just giggled.
"Ugh, I swear if you weren't being cute I'd have thrown you through five buildings," threatened Kuroda,
"Oh, you think I'm cute?" she asked mischievously.
"I hate my life."
"Uh huh,"
"How did I ever end up with you for a friend? I mean seriously, as a captain of the black ops, I wasn't even supposed to have friends," he said.
"Plus," he continued, "My work should have kept me from all social interactions with anybody. Maybe it's Kisuke's fault. Wouldn't be the first time something bad happened to me because of him. Heck I hardly even want remember all that teasing you gave me. To everyone else I could keep a straight face, but when it came to you, I lost my cool in less than 5 minutes."
He sighed, "I guess I can't complain though. If you weren't my friend, I probably would have committed suicide or something by now. Though, dying doesn't seem that horrible when you considered what I had to do on a daily basis."
No response.
"What? No witty come back? No teasing? No kitty voice? Nothing?"
Finally, he heard a response. Well, sort of.
He heard snoring.
"Are you asleep?" he asked, "How the hell did you fall asleep?"
More snoring.
"Right...it's you, how could I forget," he muttered, a sweat drop rolling down his face.
Before long the two of them had gotten back to Kuroda's apartment, there Kuroda gently laid Yoruichi down on her bed for the night.
"Jeez," he muttered as he walked down stairs and opened the fridge to get a bottle of milk, "it's like having a pet or something."
He chugged down the contents of the bottle and threw it away before going to bed himself. Though when he lay down, he found he could not drift off, no matter how many sheep he counted.
"Was that last one 899 or 999? I can't remember," he muttered to himself, "great, now I have to start over."
Just then, his cell phone began to ring. He calmly answered, fully knowing who was calling.
"What is it Kisuke?"
"Eh? How did you know it was me?" asked the shop keeper with genuine surprise.
"Caller ID," replied Kuroda, "maybe you should stop using that old land line phone and catch up with the times."
"Yeah whatever, anyway I was just calling to find out how that little adventure turned out," said Kisuke,
Kuroda paused for a moment before asking, "How did you know about that?"
"I know everything," replied Kisuke.
Kuroda decided it was best not to pry too far and just answer, "It went well, I guess, but you were right. Something big is going down and soon.
"I know," said Kisuke, his voice lacking its usual enthusiasm, "I'm afraid that your human friend, Kurosaki Ichigo will be getting involved with it too."
"You've met him?"
"Yeah, he's pretty strong for a kid who's only been a shinigami for about five days," said Kisuke with a small chuckle.
"I'm not even going to ask how he became a shinigami. I just need to know what I have to look out for," said Kuroda,
"Be on the lookout for any shinigami from soul society, eventually they'll come and investigate the absence of one of their operatives," said Kisuke "and keep an eye on your friend."
"Right," he said,
"By the way, tomorrow might get a bit...messy,"
"Whys that?"
"There's this kid, and he has a bit of a rivalry with Ichigo. His name is Uryu Ishida, pale kid, glasses, raven hair."
"I know him," replied Kuroda, "but what's he got to do with this."
"He's a Quincy."
"Quincy? Didn't I kill most of them?"
"Yeah...you did," replied Kisuke, "this kid will try to prove he's better than Ichigo. I suggest you stick around when things get out of hand."
"I will,"
"Bye."
"Bye."
Kuroda placed his phone back down on his bedside table and lay back down in bed.
It seemed that there would be no peace for him.
#&*^$#&*^&*#^!&#$^*#&!#^*)#*&$(#*$&#(*&$#')
Yoruichi must have been incredibly tired as she did not wake up. She was even still in bed when Kuroda left for school.
Ah yes, School. What an...interesting place. They got the results from the test scores today.
Kuroda had been just walking down the hallway, bag in hand when he suddenly heard someone shout,
"ICHIGO IS RANKED #23! IT'S A LIE! HOW COULD YOU BE RANKED SO HIGH!"
"That, would be Kiego," muttered Kuroda as he calmly strolled down the hallway,
"Shut up man, I actually study for tests. You should try it some time," said Ichigo,
"AHA! So that's what you do when your home! You always say that your too busy to hang out with me! But as it turns out, your just studying like a total nerd!" he concluded, "OHNO! I'm friends with a NERD!"
"What a bunch of idiots," muttered Kuroda,
"Maybe you'd like these thick nerd glasses as a farewell gift!" suggested Kiego while wearing a pair of thick soda bottle glasses, which Ichigo proceeded to destroy, along with Kiego's face.
"No thanks," said Ichigo, "Hey Kuroda. Jeez you didn't get any sleep did you?"
"Nope," replied Kuroda, "#23 huh? That's pretty high."
"Well, my hair gives me a lot of problems as it is. I don't want to be an academic failure on top of that," reasoned Ichigo,
"Yeah, I guess you're right," said Keigo, who had miraculously healed, "Sorry about earlier, so how about, IF I GIVE YOU THIS OFFICAL NERD HEAD BAND!"
"I refuse," said Ichigo as he snipped off the head band with a pair of scissors.
With that Kiego ran down the hall screaming at the top of his lungs, "FINE! SEE IF I EVER WANT TO HANG OUT WITH YOU EVER AGAIN!"
He continued down when he suddenly came rushing back and said, "well at least you two would never betray me right? Chad old buddy and Kuroda my pal!"
"Do not lump me together with your kind Kiego," Kuroda growled menacingly,
"Uh, yes sir," mumbled Kiego, "Chad?"
Chad simply point up onto the board, he was #11. This time, both Kiego and Mizuro freaked out and ran screaming down the hallway.
"Nerds! All of you! I'll never be seen with you ever again!" declared Kiego before running out of sight.
"What did you get?" asked Ichigo,
"Uh, let's see here," said Kuroda, "#8, pretty good."
"Well if we're nerds, who's the top guy?" asked Ichigo, "Ishida Ametatsu, who's that?"
"He's Uryu, Ishida Uryu," explained Orihime,
"You know him?"
"He's in our class," explained Orihime.
Ichigo's eyes widened and his face went rigid at the realization that he'd never heard of this guy despite him being in the same class.
"You couldn't remember a face or name to save your life could you?" asked Tatsuki "Let's go Orihime."
"In our class?"
"This will not end well," muttered Kuroda.
His prediction came true the next day. Kuroda had decided to follow Ichigo after class during lunch time, he was right to do so. That kid Ishida, challenged him.
The crazy Quincy let loose hollow bait into the air, almost immediately hollows began to pop up all over the radar. Kuroda immediately swallowed his emergency soul candy and abandoned his gigai.
As he ran he grabbed his cellphone and dialed up Kisuke,
"Hello?"
"Kisuke! We've got a problem!" shouted Kuroda, "the Quincy kid let loose hollow bait, now the buggers are practically pouring out of Hueco Mundo!"
"Gotcha, I'll get the team together,"
"Alright, I'll call back with a status update later," he said before hanging up.
'The hollows will go for the people with the highest amount of reiatsu, meaning either Ishida or Ichigo, no problems there. Rukia could have problems, but she's in a gigai. Who else?' he thought to himself.
Take a pause in his stride, he focused his reiatsu into a thin blanket that he used to sweep over the city. Out of all the citizens, he picked up about 4 other people that would most likely attract the hollows attention.
'One of them is, Chad. No problems there, he's resourceful and always manages. The other is, Karin, Ichigo's little sister. No worries, Ichigo's already on his way to help his family. That leaves...Orihime! Tatsuki!'
"Crap, they don't have a chance!" he yelled as he doubled his speed towards the two girls. Luckily they were close to each other, so he'd be able to protect both of them.
Wait, what about him?
His question was soon answered as about a dozen hollows ripped through the sky and appeared in his path.
"You have got to be kidding me," he growled as he drew AnShen, "OUT OF THE WAY!"
The hollows never had a chance, AnShen cut through the like a hot knife through butter and Kuroda its wielder moved too fast for any of them to even try and attack.
A hollow lunged at him from the side only for him to split it in half. Another swooped down at him from above. He easily shred through its defense and chopped off its head.
Still more came to try and take down the powerful shinigami, none succeeded. Using Shunpo he danced past each of his attackers and left them in pieces.
He became so focused in simply barging through his opponents that he failed to notice a hollow jump down from a building and attack him from his flank.
He noticed just as it raised its claws to attack, he spun on his heel to face it when suddenly a black missile tore through its head, killing it instantly.
"Yoruichi!"
"What are you doing?" she asked in her cat form, from on top a street light, "get your butt in gear and save your friends! I'll handle these guys!"
"Uh, right!" he said but suddenly stopped when he realized, "WAIT! YOU AREN"T GOING TO FIGHT NAKED ARE YOU!"
"Well, why not?" she asked nonchalantly,
"ITS INDECENT! PUT SOME CLOTHES ON BEFORE YOU JUMP INTO BATTLE!" he ordered,
"Just go save your friends," she replied before jumping off,
"Argh, that woman will be the death of me," he growled as he sped off to save Orihime, "I hope she'll be alright."
"WAIT WHY AM I WORRIED FOR HER! SHE'S A FORMER CAPTAIN" he yelled, his eyes wide with agitation, "I'M SUPPOSED TO BE FOCUSING ON SAVING ORIHIME!"
With his mind set on focusing on other matters, he rushed towards the school to hopefully save Orihime.
He didn't by the way, but he managed to find her unconscious on the ground.
"I could have sworn that there was a hollow around here just a few moments ago," he muttered as he scooped her off the ground.
"The hollow is dead."
Kuroda turned to see the owner of the voice just behind him.
"Kisuke? Did you kill the hollow?" he asked,
"Not me, her," he said pointing to Orihime, "she killed it."
"Tch, with what? Her bad cooking?" he joked,
"Not exactly," said Kisuke with a grin, "I believe you know this one as well."
He pointed behind him to reveal Tessai carrying Chad on his shoulders.
"Chad? Yeah I know him, is he alright?"
"He'll be absolutely fine, he's tough one," assured Kisuke,
"Yep, that's Chad for you."
"How's about we get these two to my shop, I'll explain the situation on the way, alright?"
"Yeah, let's go."
On their way to his shop, Kisuke explained to Kuroda the powers of his friends. How their involvement with Ichigo had allowed them to develop spiritual awareness, which eventually led to the development of the powers they now had.
"The two are resting safely now," announced Tessai,
"Thank you Tessai," said Kisuke as he sipped his tea, "now, any questions?"
"Yeah, how did so little bait, attract so many hollows?"
"I'm not sure," admitted Kisuke, "It might be something else that's attracting them, some other player."
"You mean like Heijin's mysterious benefactor?"
Kisuke took another sip before saying, "possibly, I can't be sure."
It was just then that they began to hear voices coming from the other room.
"Looks like your friends are up," said Kisuke,
"Yeah,"
"You'd best come with me when I go to explain to them what's going on, they know you so your presence will calm them down," said Kisuke,
"Sure," he replied as he stood up, "gonna be real interesting to explain to them why I'm holding a katana."
"Ya know you seem really stressed," said Kisuke as he walked towards the door,
"I'm always like this."
"You should go to the beach or something," he suggested,
"Pft, I hate the beach," he replied.
With that they pushed through the door and into the room where Chad and Orihime sat.
"I see your finally awake," said Kisuke,
Both of the high school students turned to face them.
"Kuroda? Is that you?" asked Orihime,
"Hey Orihime, Hey Chad," he replied casually,
"Hey" said Chad, "are you the one who saved us?"
"Well, technically you guys saved yourselves, we just carried you here," explained Kisuke as Tessai brought in a trey full of tea, "now then, where should I begin?"
(*&#(*&(*&#$^&#^*#&^!*(#)$&(*#&#&*#^&)) This is a long chapter!
"This is a lot to take in at once," said Orihime, holding her head in what appeared to be mental agony.
"Then do you deny that you were attack earlier today?" asked Kisuke,
"Uh..."
"Even as we speak, Ichigo continues to fight hollows, and the strong spiritual energy he released has had an effect on you," explained Kisuke, "still, whether or not you walk through the door that has been opened is up to each of you."
"If it helps," said Kuroda, speaking for the first time in the entire conversation, "know that if you do go through the door. I'll help you along the path."
Just then the door opened.
"Boss," said Tessai, "the sky rips have begun to converge."
"Preparations?"
"Complete."
"Time to go then," said Kisuke as he turned around, Kuroda similarly grabbed AnShen and followed his friend.
"Come along won't you?" asked Kuroda as Kisuke disappeared through the door, his friends staring at him as though he were an alien being, "I'll show you what lies beyond that door."
#*(#&^#&*(^$&*(#()*#)
"That...is a lot of hollows," commented Kuroda as he stared at the massive horde that had surrounded Ichigo and Uryu.
Behind them, Jinta, Ururu, and Tessai prepared themselves for battle. Kisuke had placed Chad and Orihime on an overpass that gave them a good view of the situation that was unfolding.
By now the sky looked like a piece of cracked concrete, jagged lines ran from side to side and hollows seemed to simply ooze out of the ruptures.
"You know, I feel slightly responsible for this happening," admitted Kuroda,
"Why's that?" asked Kisuke,
"I wiped out so many of that boy's kin," said Kuroda solemnly, his eyes darkening as he saw flashes of the past, "now it's pushed him to do this."
"You were under orders," Kisuke pointed out, "you didn't have a choice. No one did."
Kuroda snorted in disgust.
"Oh look," said Kisuke in attempt to change the subject, "seems the grand finale is about to start."
Suddenly, giant white boney fingers slid through larges hole in the sky. Together they slowly tore it wide open, as it grew larger, it slowly revealed what they had all come to observe: the Gillian.
For any of them fighting Gillian would have been like fighting a dog, but they wouldn't be the ones fighting. They'd come to watch Ichigo fight it.
"This better not get him killed Kisuke," growled Kuroda as his hand gripped AnShen's hilt.
"Have faith Kuroda, have faith."
With that, Kuroda dashed forth.
"Its friggin huge!" exclaimed Ichigo,
"My bait...it couldn't have caused this!" said Uryu as though he was trying to convince himself.
"Are you still denying it?" asked Ichigo in disbelief,
The hollows surrounding them took advantage of the distraction their larger brother had provided and charged forth.
"Shit," they both swore as both warriors readied themselves.
Ichigo prepared to swing at the nearest hollow when suddenly it exploded into a dozen bloody pieces.
"What the?" his eyes wide with surprise, he looked around to see that all the hollows had been destroyed in a similar fashion, their bodies literally carpeting the ground.
In the middle of it all, stood Kuroda, katana in hand.
"Yo," he said while giving a quick informal salute,
Ichigo's jaw dropped and his eyes bulged forth, letting out the loudest gasp of surprise anyone of them had ever heard.
"K-K-K-Kuroda! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!" he yelled,
"No time for that," he replied,
Another wave of hollow rushed forth from the tree line only to be cut down by a barrage of gun fire. Ichigo turned to see the source was...a little girl with pig tails.
"Hello," she said shyly, "I apologize for being late."
Jinta and Tessai suddenly charge forth and dealt with the remaining stragglers.
"We thought you could use some help," said Kisuke, finally stepping forth.
"Mr. Sandal Hat?"
"Ichigo," said Kuroda, snapping the orange hair boy from his trance, "I'm sure you have a lot of questions right now, I'll answer them later but for now we need you to take care of that big guy."
Ichigo's eyes narrowed and nodded in understanding, "Gotch ya,"
"Come on Uryu, let's go!" he yelled before charging off,
"Ichigo! Don't be crazy!" called Uryu as he ran after the Orange haired warrior.
Kuroda watched as his friend rushed to take on the giant hollow slowly lumbering through the park.
"Ichigo," shouted someone, Kuroda turned to see Rukia shouting for his friend to stop, only for Kisuke to stop her.
'I wonder how he's doing so far' he thought to himself, he looked towards the Gillian and saw Ichigo jump at it, only to bounce off like some pebble.
Needless to say, this did not bolster Kuroda's confidence.
Kuroda sighed and walked over to Kisuke, then punched him in the face.
"OW!"
"Please tell me you have this planned out," growled Kuroda as tears comically spilled out of Kisuke's eyes.
"I do, I do! Just don't hit me again!" whined Kisuke,
Kuroda turned back to watch Ichigo, only to see his sword strapped on top of Uryu's head. Which was, admittedly funny to look at, but it also lowered his confidence even further.
"They...are going to die," he muttered,
His words seemed to be coming true as the Gillian started charging up its bright red cero, Kuroda could feel the thing pulling reiatsu towards its mouth and gradually build it up.
Ichigo, always being a man of action, did the smartest thing anyone could have thought of at the time. He grabbed his sword and charged towards the Gillian.
Just as he closed in on the behemoth, it fired its red cero and aimed it directly at the Shinigami at it's feet.
Kuroda's eyes widened as he watched the attack drop down on Ichigo like a thousand pounds of rock. It was amazing that Ichigo wasn't immediately vaporized. Somehow he'd managed to catch the attack on the side of his sword.
For Ichigo, the experience was incredibly intense. He really did feel like a thousand pounds of rock had just fallen on top of him. He didn't even know how his arms were still attached to his body. But he knew he couldn't afford to let himself drop, he pushed back with all his might but it was like fighting with a brick wall.
He roared in fury as he desperately tried to push back.
Just a bit more, all he needed was a small push and he knew he could win. He got his push, suddenly an unknown source of energy flowed into his arms and he felt himself push back against the thing's attack.
Ichigo knew he could win, gritting his teeth together. He pushed up with all his might. His knees rocked from the exertion and his arms were strained to their limit, but he pushed on.
He roared to the skies as he pushed forth one last time and sent the thing's attack right back at it.
A beam of light cut across its body and up to its face. The Gillian roared in pain as it stumbled back into the hole it had come out of.
Reluctantly it pulled the sky back together and soon disappeared altogether.
"VICTORY!" screamed Ichigo,
"You knew that would happen, didn't you?" asked Kuroda, a little pissed off.
"Maybe," chuckled Kisuke,
Kuroda was just about to relax, when a bright orange light suddenly blanketed the park.
He looked to see that the source of it was in fact Ichigo. Kuroda's eyes widened in realization, Ichigo had let loose too much reiatsu too quickly, his body was breaking down from the strain. This was definitely not good, if he didn't stabilize soon, the break down would take out everything within a 5 block radius.
Amazingly enough it was the Quincy to act first. He stepped on Ichigo's sword and began to channel the Shinigami's out of control reiatsu and fire it out of his bow. He sent arrow after arrow in hopes of disposing of the dangerous reiatsu.
"Uryu stop! Your arm, it's getting all torn up!" cried Ichigo,
"Shut up!" shouted Uryu, "If we don't both survive this, we won't have each other to beat up! So just be quite and let me save you damn it!"
Uryu screamed in silent pain, his glasses began to fog up from his perspiration. The pain was becoming even worse, he didn't know if he could keep it up any longer.
He reached for his bow in hopes or releasing another arrow, his fingers just barely brushed the string when he felt a hand stop him.
He looked to see a man with dark hair and red eyes holding him back.
"Well done Quincy," Kuroda calmly spoke, then suddenly pushed the Quincy back, "I'll take over from here."
"Kuroda," Ichigo said weakly as he watched his friend reach down towards his zanpaktou.
"Kyuuketsu Ude," he whispered Kuroda,
The moment he finished his sentence, his arm suddenly became covered by a layer of red reiatsu. The blood red energy slowly morphed into the shape of his arm and hand, then slowly sharpened the tips of his fingers.
To any on lookers, it almost seemed like Kuroda's hand was covered in red fire.
Gently, he reached out to touch Ichigo's zanpaktou. The moment he did, he reiatsu surround his arm became erratic, parts of it seemed to erupt like miniature geysers then calm down.
Gradually the bright light from Ichigo's sword died down, leaving Kuroda with a large blue orb in his reiatsu covered hand.
He quickly crushed it and let the particles float off into the sky.
"Kuroda," Ichigo said as he weakly tried to push himself up.
"No need to thank me," said Kuroda as he walked away, his cloak fluttering rather dramatically.
As he walked by Kisuke, he heard him say, "been a while since you used that."
"It was for a friend," said Kuroda, "I need no other reason to use it."
With that said, he walked away, leaving Kisuke to sort out the mess.