After the meeting, the Shinigami went their own separate ways, only to battle their Reigai counterparts that were sent to the Human World by Inaba to capture Nozomi. It was a tough battle, as most of them were sent to the Urahara Shop to be healed by his workers, but in the end Nozomi was saved.
The following morning, Asa joined three Captains, Hitsugaya, Byakuya and Komamura, in Urahara's underground training hall. They stood across the giant square-framed stone gate where the owner of the shop was making preparations for them to enter Soul Society. "I apologise for the wait, everyone." he said. "I'll done with the adjustments in a minute."
"So we'll have to pass through the Precipice World, after all?" said Hitsugaya.
"Isn't the Precipice World completely under Kageroza's control?" asked Komamura.
"I wouldn't say completely." answered Urahara.
"What do you mean?" demanded the Captain of 10th Division.
He removed his hand from the gate and turned around to face her and the Captains, and explained, "It appears Kageroza's control doesn't extend to the Cleaner. You might be wondering, "How did the Cleaner appear so often when it should only have appeared only once every seven days?" I came up with a hypothesis."
"Never mind the lengthy explanations." interrupted Byakuya. "What you're saying is that he set the time axis of the Cleaner's appearances to coincide with when we enter the Precipice World."
"Exactly." said Urahara with a smile. "Astute as always, Squad 6 Captain." The said man only furrowed his brows at him before he added, "However, that suggests there are limits to his control of time. Otherwise, why waste the time between your entry into the Precipice World and the Cleaner's appearance?"
"So, what do you want us to do?" inquired Komamura.
"I've reserved a space behind the Cleaner that is not controlled by Kageroza." said Urahara. "It's a short time axis when you can move inside the Precipice World. You will be passing through there. I said "reserved", but it's at most thirty seconds or so. If your timing is off and you enter too soon, you'll become the Cleaner's prey. On the other hand, if you leave the reserved space, you'll fall into Kageroza's territory. You might never be able to leave the Precipice World again."
A gentle smile flickered across Asa's face. "Thank you, Urahara-san."
The said man grinned at her. "My pleasure, Asa-chan." he said.
Just then, Tessai entered the hall, and not long Zaraki approached them from behind with Yachiru on his shoulder. She was a very small, young girl with pink hair, dark pink eyes and a perpetual blush on her cheeks. She wore the normal Shihakusho and the 11th Division Lieutenant insignia on her right arm.
"You're late!" scolded Hitsugaya.
"We were about to leave without you." added Komamura.
"You're just in time." said Urahara, otherwise. "But before you go, I should warn you that-"
"Don't need any!" interrupted the impatient Zaraki. "Let's get this show on the road."
"Aren't we running out of time?" questioned Hitsugaya, who was looking at the owner of the shop.
"You're right." agreed the latter. "Okay, watch yourselves." He crouched down and activated the portal with Tessai on the other side of the gate. As soon as the gate lit up, he said, "Here we go!"
Once the gate opened, the Cleaner made its move, and at this cue Shinigami took off. As they ran in the Cleaner's wake, Komamura looked at their surroundings uneasily. "What's wrong?" asked Hitsugaya.
"Something isn't right." replied the Captain of 7th Division.
Suddenly, a wave of goo cascaded into the tunnel and began flowing towards them rapidly. "The Restrictive Current!" gasped Hitsugaya.
While following the Captains, Asa glanced over her shoulder to look at the current. 'Keeping up behind the Cleaner is not all that difficult by itself.' she thought. 'The problem is our powerful reiatsu. The walls of the Precipice World react to reishi. In other words, the higher our reiatsu, the faster the Restrictive Current becomes.' Her frown deepened when she took note of the situation closely. 'But that's not all it is. Inaba is unable to control the Restrictive Current. But he is able to manipulate time around it.' At that moment, the Restrictive Current increased in speed, closing up on them.
"That bastard Kageroza." growled Hitsugaya, who also knew the reason behind this problem. "He set a trap, after all."
"So what?" said Zaraki. "We'll just force our way through."
As the others ran forwards, Komamura suddenly stopped in his tracks and faced the incoming Restrictive Current. "What're you going to do, Komamura?!" shouted Hitsugaya.
"Leave this to me!" he said before unsheathing his Zanpakutou. "Bankai! Kokujo Tengen Myo-oh!"
"You fool!" berated the Captain of 10th Division. "You'll be swallowed up!" But Komamura was oblivious to his protests and proceeded to tackle the current head on. And just like the young Captain predicted, Komamura's Bankai was swallowed up by the Restrictive Current. "Komamura!"
Not long, Byakuya noticed a glimmering patch in the wall. "There!" he said. The remaining four Shinigami leapt towards it, entering Seireitei safely.
"That Komamura..." muttered Hitsugaya, berating the said Captain's rashness again.
"Let it go." said Zaraki once he landed safely. "We can't go back for him now. Besides, he's not going to let something like that kill him."
"We can't waste time by stopping." added Byakuya.
At that moment, Asa picked up a familiar reiatsu and was starting feel worried. "That's Ojii-sama's reiatsu!" she gasped.
"Let's go!" he ordered before running through Seireitei with the others following. When they arrived at the end where the path was split into three different routes, they picked up a tremendous reiatsu.
"They're coming." said Zaraki enthusiastically. "This is going to be good." Before he could take a few more steps forward, he was stopped by Hitsugaya who held his arm out. "What? You're stopping me?"
"No, that would be useless." stated the latter. "Besides, their purpose is to defeat us. We'll have to fight them regardless. But our target is only Inaba Kageroza. We'll split up here and head for Squad 12's barracks individually."
"Fine." agreed the 11th Division's Captain. "I'll drop by along the way."
"No objections." said Byakuya.
"Ken-chan, it's that way!" said Yachiru while pointing towards the possible source of the strong reiatsu they'd picked up earlier.
"I know that." he said before taking a few steps towards the right path. "I'm going this way."
"Taichou." called Asa.
The said boy turned around to face her. "Asa-san, you'll join Kuchiki this time." he ordered, earning a curt nod from her before he looked at the others. "We'll meet up where Kageroza is."
The Captains then split up, with Byakuya and Asa running into the left path, Hitsugaya taking the middle one, while Zaraki and Yachiru picked the other one. While following the 6th Division Captain, Asa glanced over her shoulder with uneasiness at where the 11th Division Captain and Lieutenant went off. 'The reiatsu in Zaraki's direction... that's...' she trailed off. But she shook her head, because it was pointless for her to be worried about him when the Captain could handle the issue in his hands. She turned back to look ahead once more and continued following Byakuya.
Along the way, she picked up the familiar reiatsu from before, causing a soft gasp to escape from her. 'Ojii-sama is fighting with Kyoraku-taichou and Ukitake-taichou.' she noted before correcting herself. 'No, they are the Reigai counterparts of Kyoraku-taichou and Ukitake-taichou. I hope Ojii-sama is okay.'
"Captain-Commander will be alright." assured Byakuya suddenly, grabbing her attention. "He will not be easily killed by the likes of them. Focus on what we're supposed to do now." Asa responded with a curt nod and continued running.
After a while of running, they began walking through Seireitei when they were close enough. However, they halted in their tracks when they picked up someone's presence. "Yo, we've been waiting for you." came Hitsugaya's voice. His Reigai counterpart then stepped out with Reigai-Asa, standing across her and Byakuya. "I won't beat around the bush. We're here to stop anyone who tries to pass. Of course, if you stay away, we won't chase after you."
Byakuya's brows furrowed and he declared, "I will eliminate anyone who gets in my way."
The Reigai counterparts of Hitsugaya and Asa gripped the hilt of their Zanpakutou. "That makes things easy." said the former with a smirk. It was then Asa and Byakuya's turn to hold the hilts of their weapons.
"Taichou, leave her to me." assured the Reigai-Asa.
"Yeah." he responded. "Bankai! Daiguren Hyorinmaru!" In his Bankai form, his right arm had ice formed onto in the shape of a dragon's head around his sword hand, encasing the sword up to the hilt, which also changed from the shape of a four-pointed star to that of an eight-pointed star. The ice formed up over his shoulders with two large wings sprouting from his back and a long tail, down his left arm and encased his hand, taking on the form of a claw. His feet were also encased in ice in a similar manner to his left hand where they ended in claws.
While the two Captains fought, Asa and her Reigai counterpart went as far as they could from the battle before beginning their own battle, starting with clashing their blades. As soon as the Reigai pushed her away with her Zanpakutou, she chanted, "Bakudo #62 Hyapporankan!" She began generating energy in the form of a blue-white glowing rod in her hand and threw it at her original before multiply into a hundred more rods.
Seeing that she was unable to dodge all the rods in time, Asa decided to counter-attack. "Bakudo #63 Sajo Sabaku!" Raising her palm up, yellow energy taking a form of a thick rope manifested, spiraling in the air as it destroyed all the rods fired at her way.
The Reigai took this as a cue to cast another Kidou spell. "Hado #88 Hiryu Gekizoku Shinten Raiho!" She raised her arm forward with the palm facing flat towards Asa and fired a gigantic beam of electrical and spiritual energy.
"Bakudo #81 Danku!" Asa immediately manifested a huge translucent barrier that was strong enough to protect her from the enormous explosion caused by the attack, leaving dark smoke to cloud the other side. 'She made her next move with Kidou spells.' she noted. 'And usually, I don't use Kidou unless it's necessary. She has a really strong intention to kill me.'
Once the barrier disintegrated, Asa unsheathed her sword and muttered, "Asobi, Kage Odoriko." Her Zanpakutou turned into a black sword before creating another identical one that became invisible. It was at that moment when her Reigai counterpart used Flash Step to move to her front and they resumed fighting with their swords both in Shikai forms. But this fight was a dangerous one. Not only Asa had to deflect her opponents' attacks, she had to block the invisible sword before it could land a blow on her; and the same went for the Reigai. This went on for a while until the Reigai attempted to slash her right side, prompting her to dodge the attack but it resulted in her getting a huge gash on her left waist. Asa winced at the pain, and the Reigai took this opportunity to successfully leave two more wounds on her, forcing her to skid away from the Reigai.
"I didn't think you would fall for that trick so easily." said the Reigai. "I genuinely thought you could do better than that."
"So did I." joked Asa.
"Well, it doesn't matter." shrugged her copy before wedging her Zanpakutou into the ground. "Dai nii-ji, Musubu!" Its shadow took on a form of multiple tendrils that shot towards Asa, whom knew that they couldn't be cut with a mere blade and leapt back, causing the tendrils to follow wherever she went until she decided that she had to use a Kidou spell to destroy them.
After generating blue energy with her index and middle fingers on both hands, she said, "Hado #73 Soren Sokatsui!" She made a pushing motion with both of her palms towards the tendrils and the energy was released in a concentrated blast, blasting the shadows until their disintegrated before the bright glow from the impact died down, revealing the Reigai removing her Zanpakutou from the ground.
"As much as I hate to use this, I have to follow our Captain's orders if it is my duty to kill you." said the Reigai before holding the pommel of her Zanpakutou and lifting it up high. Asa needn't ask the Reigai because she was awfully familiar with this ability. "Forgive me. I don't like to watch you suffer, but I must carry out my duty."
Asa stared at her for a while and heaved a sigh, mirroring her actions. "Very well." she said. "It is inevitable that we have to fight each other until one of us dies." Both Zanpakutou then floated in mid-air before their wielders gently knocked them, allowing them to rotate in a clockwise motion at a steady pace.
"Bankai."