Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Hell Butterfly ❯ Light Brigade ( Chapter 11 )

 

Hell Butterfly

 

Light Brigade

~11~

 

o)0(o

 

Unohana Retsu, Captain of the Fourth Squad, moved serenely through the white halls of Las Noches. In her coat of office she was near perfectly camouflaged, but of course it was a perfectly disguised presence that awarded her such calm in the enemy's keep.

 

Unohana, with fifteen hundred years behind her and in active service as a shinigami before Yamamoto's academy had even been conceived of, was without doubt the most powerful captain after the old man himself.

 

And yet she never showed a glimmer of it.

 

In Fourth Squad flaring one's ridiculously overpowered spiritual power at random was not encouraged. She selected the weak ones, who knew best how to hold back and make a little go a long way. The ones with a skill hand at kido; the quiet ones who could listen well and not make life-jeopardising mistakes. Those with a touch of care in their hearts. The intelligent ones that were more than an asauchi attached to an idiot.

 

And sometimes just the strays that did not deserve Rukongai. They could weave bandages if nothing else.

 

And, she thought with the tiniest of frowns; clean sewers. Honestly, such a task should really have gone to Eleventh Division. Did none of them ever consider cross-contamination?

 

An arrancar walked straight past the quiet woman. Before it could complete a double-take, it melted. Unohana turned round and nodded in thanks to the giant manta ray hovering behind her.

 

It was an old adage, recalled Retsu as she continued through the corridors; that no one seemed to remember these days.

 

“Those who know best how to heal; know best how to hurt.”

 

Laughing a little at her mistake of speaking aloud, she covered her mouth in a small self-admonition. However it was indeed true. The wisdom of reconstruction went hand in hand with its opposing twin, deconstruction.

 

Each and every Hollow she passed dissolved in a pale green mist.

 

She was nearing the inner circles of the fortress. It was clear from the increase in nearby spirit threads. The barest whisper of power showed her which way to go and she began to follow those ribbons of red, blue and white. Shinigami, Quincy, and human. Fortunately they all led in the same direction.

 

“Good evening, Tousen-san,” Unohana greeted him as they passed each other like ships in the night. The blind man froze, head jerking round to locate the source of the sound. Yet her breathing was light, her footsteps silent, and her aura flawlessly suppressed. The treacherous captain eventually turned and walked away, defeated by her ninja skills.

 

“Minazuki,” chided the healer once the coast was clear. “Please stop stalking the poor man, now is not the time.”

 

The strange beast rolled its single eye at her and sighed, grudgingly returning to her side.

 

o)0(o

 

"Heh heh heh," laughed an adjuchas, kicking the scree from a landslide as he scented or sensed what was trapped beneath it. "Ashido's out for the count.” His mask was fixed in a permanent grin; but this time he meant it.

 

“This is perfect. A few Gillians and a cero concerto - and that will be the end of the soul reaping rat.” He looked around, wondering where he could locate enough Gillians to melt the rocks back into magma.

 

Stalking away at high speed, the Hollow passed a black and white figure and barely noticed until it was behind him. Turning at the unusual scent, the monster screeched its hatred.

 

"Another shinigami? Fuck that! I'm not having two of you crapping up my territory!"

 

Kuchiki Byakuya-taicho turned, hand on his sword, and blinked coolly. "Forgive me, perhaps I was too subtle. You clearly have not noticed that you have already been stabbed." He removed his hand from the hilt of his zanpakuto and used it to flick the thin sweep of his fringe out of his eyes.

 

"What bullshit are you spewing..." growled the Hollow before bursting into a cloud of glowing spirit particles.

 

"Too stupid to realise he was dead," said the captain derisively. "I have a plumbed a new depth of disrespect for Hollows.”

 

o)0(o

 

“We urgently need to get out of here,” stated Ishida Uryuu, pacing the sparsely furnished room in agitation. “The longer we're here, the more likely it becomes that they'll find a way to use us against Soul Society.”

 

His fellow prisoners remained silent. The only light was that of the ever-crescent moon, the only movement the slow flit of Inoue's fairies beneath the ceiling. She was trying to heal herself of Aizen's punishments, but her heart was so broken that her reiatsu could barely fizz.

 

Sado Yasutora remained silent. They may never have said it in so many words, but Ichigo had been his best friend. The one who fought for him. The one he fought for. The knowledge that the person who had stormed Seireitei had just been erased from existence was angering him. Rage was making all the old memories of his violent behaviour back in Mexico well up, and even the weight of his grandfather's medallion round his neck did nothing to quench the flames of hate.

 

His devil's fists itched to destroy. He had not felt this in years.

 

Renji was lying on the floor; in a patch where he could see the moon he still had not reached. He had lost close friends before. All of them, in fact. But he and Rukia had been the ones with magic, the survivors. In all the years he had gotten used to the idea of her not dying. And of course, dramatic rescues by ryoka only cemented that belief. She'd cheated an execution ordered by Central 46, Aizen and the Soutaicho, for heaven's sake! What on earth had she seen that made her stop fighting that Espada? What could possibly make her falter?

 

…

 

…So Rukia was gone. And her hero was dead too, the one whose attacks pierced the moon he only barked at. Forget being a stray dog.

 

He had nothing to howl for now.

 

In the depths of his soul, the chimera Zabimaru stood forlornly in a shallow pool. Night had fallen in the inner world, and the sky was veiled with clouds. Renji, called the nue, sombre. The moon you chased was never Byakuya. But always the sister that was stolen from you.

 

I never hunted anyone. Renji turned his face from the cold moonlight. I was just the one being chased away.

 

“I…”

 

Inoue's hoarse voice broke them from their reveries.

 

“I came here so that no one would die…” She curled up into a wretched little ball. “A-and now Kuchiki-san and…Kuro-saki…saki are…” A sob rattled her. “And Karin-chan are all…!”

 

“Inoue-san! Please don't blame yourself; it was our decision to come…here…” Ishida leapt forwards to comfort her in what little way he could, already aware that his words would have no effect. Yet he stopped mid step.

 

The door had opened.

 

“Dinner time,” trilled a blond arrancar with false cheer. He shoved the food trolley hard, sending it crashing into the opposite wall where it crumpled like an accordion. Totally destroyed by the force of the impact.

 

“Tesla…” explained Inoue listlessly, though she lacked the energy to tell them this was Nnoitra's Fraccion.

 

“Tesla-sama,” the Hollow corrected her. His lip was curled in disgust as he took in the sorry sight of the captives. He continued speaking with a mocking air. “I'm just doing you a favour. Better to starve to death than suffer what's coming next. But you're already in luck that my Espada is dead, `cause he would have eaten you alive.”

 

He stretched out a gloved hand and hauled Orihime up by the neck. “Let me give you a preview.”

 

Tesla grinned dangerously.

 

A grin that melted seconds later, liquefied by pervasive pale jade vapours. Inoue flinched away, revolted by the drips of plasma that were once his hand at her throat. In mere moments the green smoke deconstructed the Fraccion entirely.

 

In the open doorway a familiar face smiled warmly. Unohana Retsu, the healer whose long dark hair was always braided neatly down the front of her shihakusho and white captain's haori.

 

“Abarai-fukutaicho, would you and your comrades mind stepping into Minazuki's mouth? It will allow us to escape Hueco Mundo quickly and safely.”

 

Renji shook his head mutely, pointing at the manta ray in disbelief. “But his breath melts people.”

 

Everyone looked at the puddle of Hollow on the floor. Retsu's smile grew slightly forced.

 

“Surely it is better to melt to death than suffer `what comes next'?” She repeated Tesla's words in a horrifically gentle tone.

 

Once the threat of an even worse fate had prompted them to obey and climb into Minazuki's gaping maw, Unohana held out her scabbard to the zanpakuto spirit.

 

“Carefully, please, Minazuki.”

 

Somehow the green-eyed monster turned completely into insubstantial clouds that were then compacted back into the shape of a sword. Sheathing it, she looked around the room for anything they might have missed.

 

Satisfied, Unohana turned and flash-stepped straight out of Las Noches. With Aizen perfectly unawares that he had been invaded, robbed and evaded with no more fuss than the blinking of an eye.

 

o)0(o

 

Ashido was crushed between layers of dense, ancient rocks, his bones bruised and his flesh split. It had happened before, maybe, he couldn't remember. Right now, he could not even hear what he was saying.

 

"That was a ...new year's message but no normal answers....they might be breathing under that grave but the zeros really steered them out...how can I have...I don't know what cheesecake is.....sayonara - please?"

 

Then again, he didn't particularly care what was coming out of his mouth so long as it wasn't blood; and if his instincts kept firing on high alert like this until he was safely back in his den he would forgive any level of verbal delirium.

 

He had gone insane plenty of times in the five hundred years of solitude, but thankfully he had never gone stupid with it.

 

Gasping for air in the tiny space between two crushing forces of granite, he gathered his reiatsu - too out of it for kido - and shoved. Several tonnes of stone jerked upwards for a brief moment, enough for him to grasp the hilt of his sword with a fractured hand before they fell again. A rib snapped, and he shrieked breathlessly.

 

More mumbling ensued before he could gather his wits enough for the next push towards freedom and the lonely survival he half-hated but couldn't help straining to keep.

 

"Beast married to a one-eyed radish...free patch...gonna retrieve a dead sloth. O-O-Okay.....the wind hates me...but the fireworks are bright - might burn forever......"

 

Swallowing dust and, damn it, there was the blood he hadn't wanted; blinking and realising he could almost see dead faces in the dark rocks. "Genji...poor Genji..." garbled his cut lips. "I used to know you...you used to be immortal like an elephant like me..."

 

There was another fistful of reiatsu he could gather up and punch the rockslide with, but it seemed to be falling out of him along with his leaking blood. Making the effort because there was nothing else he could do, he managed to control his lunatic rantings long enough to speak a very important name.

 

"Kajouhi," he croaked. "Whirl, Kajouhi!" He popped the sword a few inches from its scabbard with his thumb and closed his eyes for fear of them being burned out.

 

The blade went off in a firework, a screaming, spinning catherine wheel. It cut through the boulders like a buzz saw; flying embers searing tiny holes in Ashido's skin and shihakusho. Grinning maniacally, as was fitting, he slashed his arm up and sideways, carving a huge rent in the imprisoning rocks that allowed him to escape at last.

 

Strange lights were flickering underneath the landslide when Rukia and Byakuya approached it. The captain looked askance at his little sister. A noise painful to the ears was ripping the air: metal screeching through rock.

 

"A-Ashido-san?" called Rukia warily.

 

There was a heavy crackling explosion, heralding a fountain of pebbles and grit as a mutated, hunched figure burst out of the side of the collapsed mountain. He held something bright and colourful in his hand that was too brash and garish and loud to be anything born of the drab, silent world of Hueco Mundo. Pinwheeling fires chased each other in circles just beneath his hand.

 

"Hollow...all hollow...left so empty after the wounds and the blood and the words of friends all gone...but I was never hollow to my core......can't dig out the crazy parts....too slippery...." The figure seemed to be bemoaning its twisted fate, patting blindly at its smouldering fur cloak until a stolen mask came within reach. "Can't join them - so beat them. Hollow!"

 

Donning the skull like a knight drops his visor; the churning lights paused for an instant. And then Ashido leapt at Byakuya with a lightning-swift spinning slash.

 

It was blocked hastily, even sloppily. The regal Kuchiki spat a question at his adopted sibling before skidding away from the next onslaught.

 

"If this is he, did you believe he truly needed or deserved saving?!"

 

Rukia just shook her head helplessly. This raving, sparking berserker was not the measured man she had grudgingly abandoned such a short time ago. She had begged her brother to take this detour, insisting that the shinigami who had fought tirelessly for so many centuries deserved to be brought home. If only for his funeral.

 

Every swoop of his zanpakuto left a trail of fireworks dancing in the air. If it wasn't the sword whirling, then it was Ashido himself. As the weapons clashed again and again, Byakuya found himself deprived of time and opportunity to release his own Senbonzakura.

 

In moments a chance appeared, as the madman bounced backwards onto a tree trunk before somersaulting forwards, painting a vast circle of jazzing flames in all directions. A thousand metal blossoms rose to meet him, deadly cherry petals.

 

It had to be stopped.

 

"Shinigami!!" roared Rukia, an irate Soutaicho in both tone and attitude. Her thunderous voice pierced the shrieking whistles and bangs of the firecrackers. "STAND DOWN!!"

 

Eyes flickering back into full wakefulness, and seeing a human face where a Hollow had stood before; Ashido cast aside his blazing blade and threw his arms up in defence. Crashing into Senbonzakura's razor embrace, he yelled in anticipation of the pain.

 

Yet none came.

 

Byakuya sheathed his reformed sword with customary grace and speed. The attacker was laid semi-conscious at his feet, finally defeated by the ground. Glancing anxiously at his face, Rukia expected to see hatred aimed at the dutiful shinigami she had spoken so highly of.

 

"Dug himself out of a fallen cliff and attacked the first enemy to appear, blindly and ferociously whilst extensively wounded..." said Byakuya blankly.

 

That would elicit a verdict of stupidity, thought Rukia with regret; and because of her recommendations she would also be coloured with the same brush. Her Nii-sama had unfortunately seen nothing but the worst of her earlier rescuer.

 

A tiny smile crept across his face.

 

"I'm impressed."

 

o)0(o

 

Zaraki Kenpachi, sat on perhaps the only rock in the Hueco Mundo desert within a reiatsu-sapping barrier, perked his head up happily when Kurotsuchi Mayuri announced the distant approach of Unohana-taicho.

 

He couldn't see her himself, because today he was wearing two power-munching eye patch monsters. It was part of the attempt to make him inconspicuous.

 

Him. The single most overbearingly obvious man in all of Soul Society, inconspicuous.

 

“Yo, `Hana! You got the ryoka brats?”

 

“Yes, thank you, Zaraki-taicho. However I am afraid I was unable to recover our shinigami substitute Kurosaki-kun.”

 

“That sucks,” grunted the giant, leaning back into his boulder. “He was the only guy worth fighting in Seireitei. `Cept perhaps Byakuya, if he wasn't too busy nancing about with his scarves and hair ornaments and pretty pink petals all the time.”

 

The scarred head tilted in consideration, bells jingling. “And mebbe the Soutaicho, `cept that's mutiny…”

 

Unohana smiled gently as always. “Are you comfortable there, Zaraki-taicho?”

 

“Sure. Fighting in the dark ain't never bothered me before. Oi, if yer done rescuing idiots, I don't have to be in this barrier no more, right?” He grinned.

 

“Of course not. Please feel free to step outside and look around.” She watched Kurotsuchi scurry around making adjustments to his faux-Garganta generator. What the adjustments were never seemed clear, but she was sure they were necessary.

 

Kenpachi ripped off his extra eyepatch, and after a moment's thought ripped off the other one too. He stepped out of the circle of high-tech power absorbing gadgets, making sure to stamp on it heavily as he did so. Behind him Mayuri flinched when he heard the crunch.

 

His spiritual energy went fwoomph.

 

“At last; I can have a bit of fun and fight!” He cricked his neck, raised his serrated sword in both hands and charged across the desert to Las Noches in a cloud of sand dust, blazing with yellow reiatsu and bloodlust - yelling madly all the way.

 

“Zaraki-san?” called out Retsu in a polite tone of voice.

 

He pulled up short. “What?!”

 

“We're leaving now.”

 

“WHAT?!”

 

o)0(o

 

A short time later the dark eye that stared into another dimension winked shut and vanished, leaving nothing behind.

 

o)0(o

 

BLOOMAKES! <3

 

For full enjoyment you are advised to follow the YouTube links. Please ROFL responsibly.

 

o)0(o

 

Tousen: Aizen! I have detected an intruder!

Aizen: Then crush them like worms! Who is it anyway?

Tousen: It's…Unohana Retsu. Will you take care of the ryoka personally?

Aizen: *pales* …you know what? Let's just let her do whatever she likes…

 

o)0(o

 

~Soul Pop Idol~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnwTWx7f2WM One of the songs mentioned is at 2:12, another two are at 5:12 and 5:30.

 

~round 1~

Ichigo: *headbanging with his guitar*
It's like I'm paranoid lookin' over my back
It's like a whirlwind inside of my head
It's like I can't stop what I'm hearing within
It's like the face inside is right beneath my skin

I know I've got a face in me
Points out all my mistakes to me
You've got a face on the inside too and
Your paranoia's probably worse -

 

Hichigo: I'm a bit worse than paranoia, mate.
Zangetsu: Honestly Ichigo, that song's been done to death - you disappoint me.
Hichigo: Quick! Let's gag him!

 

~round 2~

Zangetsu: *dancing with a microphone* You spin me right round, baby right round, like a record baby right round, round round~!

 

Ichigo: I think my brain just broke. O_o;;;
Hichigo: Never again.

 

~round 3~

Hichigo and Zangetsu: *duet* I wanna see the SUNSHINE AFTER THE RAIN I I I-WANT IT WANT IT! Where is the silver lining shining at the rainbow's end~?

 

Ichigo: You are both seriously disturbed.

 

~round 4~
Ichigo and Zangetsu: *swaying from side to side* Oohh, I've been through the desert on a horse with no name; it felt good to be out of the rain~!
All: Laaalaaalalalalaaa!

 

o)0(o

 

Malibu Adverts: Hueco Mundo Style.

 

Gin: Imagine if we undead took life as seriously as the rest of the world.

 

Ichigo: *browsing a clothes stall*
Szayel Apollo: *Pops up* Lookin' for something special?

Ichigo: I'm just browsing.
Szayel Apollo: *Holds out a white shihakusho* This is from de winter collection, OR *holds out another white shihakusho* from de summer collection! This is haut couture!
Ichigo: But they're falling to pieces!
Grimmjaw: Of course mon! It's the post-godmode look.
Ichigo: Do you think it'll match my sandals?
Szayel Apollo: Ooh, I see you wearin' straw sandals. Those are old style, they're from last year.
Hallibel: I got white sandals on black socks; they're the latest thing around. *shows them off*
Ishida: *glasses flash* Yeah, Ichigo, you need a vaizard fashion upgrade.
Ichigo: Dear God save me.

 

The original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyXt_vzIeR4&feature=rela ted

 

o)0(o

 

Chapter notes: First off, I'll be using more colours of spirit thread. White for normal; red for shinigami are canon. I'm adding blue for Quincy, black for hollow, and grey for arrancars/vaizards.

 

I mentioned Zabimaru being a `nue', that's a Japanese chimera with the body of a tanuki (raccoon dog), head of a monkey, legs of a tiger and a snake for a tail. Zabimaru is simpler, but it is canon that he's a nue. They're said to bring misfortune and illness - might explain why Renji is so unlucky. ;D

 

Kajouhi means spiral fire. The zanpakuto shikai is based on a Catherine wheel, which for those that don't know is a spinning disc-shaped firework. And yes, I brought Ashido back because he looks COOL!!

 

To make up for ch9 and ch10 there are 3 omakes this time, but I will be continuing the Malibu style ones because they're hilarious.

 

With this chapter, 50,000 words of Hell Butterfly have been posted!

 

Alliriyan~*