Itsuki then felt a clash of Reiatsu not far from where the two were running from."It seems that Mayuri is fighting Ishida"
Making his way to the first two sources of reiatsu, he saw a middle-aged Shinigami running while carrying a girl. The girl seemed out of it while the Shinigami had a panicked look on his face.
Itsuki then appeared in front of them, scaring the wits out of the Shinigami,
"C-c-c-captain M-m-m-Minamoto!!"
Itsuki just stared at the guy in front as he started trembling. The girl he was carrying had orange hair and two pieces of flower like hairpins that tucked her hair behind her ears. She had brown eyes and a curvaceous figure. She was one of the Ryoka, Inoue Orihime. The man suddenly slipped and fell back bringing Orihime with him. This seemed to wake her up as she slowly got up with her back facing Itsuki,
"I-it hurts, huh? Where am I?"
Looking round she got up and saw the man that knocked her unconscious was unconscious himself. His face was pale white as if he saw something extremely horrifying. Seeing this, she started talking to herself,
"Was he awed by my aura?"
Itsuki stumbled as he physically saw the optimism radiating from Orihime. She seemed unnaturally happy as she turned around with closed eyes and a smug look. Feeling someone in front of her she looked up only to see the figure of a man staring down at her.
Due to the moon being behind Itsuki, all she saw was a pair of beautiful gem like eyes that seemed to glow in the dark.
"Beautiful…"
A bit of light showed of Itsuki"s white Haori as shock pa.s.sed through Orihime.
"Captain!"
She now realised that the man wasn"t petrified due to her but the figure in front.
She slowly started to take steps back as a determined look replaced her fearful one. She knew that she had to use her offensive technique even though she had a general dislike to it if she wanted to survive.
"Koten Zanshun!"
Itsuki saw a ray of light heading towards him from one of her hairpins as he caught it between his fingers.
Orihime was shocked as she looked worriedly at the spirit in Itsuki"s hands. Itsuki started walking towards Orihime when she used another technique,
"Santen Kesshun!"
A barrier appeared in front of Itsuki as he disappeared and reappeared behind the barrier. Orihime was surprised as she started having more and more doubts about her power. Ishidkun was able to go against a captain yet she couldn"t.
Itsuki noticed that the strength in the lights of her spirits seemed to dull. Each step he took caused an increase amount of pressure on Orihime as she found it harder and harder to breath. She slowly fell on her knees while looking at Itsuki with a face devoid of hope.
"Scared?"
Orihime couldn"t respond and she only looked at the ice like eyes the figure possessed. Suddenly, Orihime felt all the pressure disappear as she regained her ability to breathe before collapsing.
"It"s good you are scared, don"t run away from your fear, rather embrace it. It shows your weakness. Only the one who acknowledges their weakness has the right to call themselves strong."
This was a first time for Itsuki to do something like this. Orihime Inoue had the ability to repel phenomenon itself and her healing ability even trespa.s.sed into G.o.d"s territory as it was stated by Aizen himself. He naturally coveted this kind of ability. The ability was a must have for the enemies he would face in the future.
He felt kind of ashamed using a speech he heard from a show in his previous life.
Looking at the two collapsed people, he felt another source of reiatsu behind him,
"Suki-Suki, what are you doing?"
A rare, helpless look came onto Itsuki"s face when he heard this. Turning around he saw Yachiru show up behind him. Itsuki wasn"t great with kids so he just disappeared, he didn"t want to get caught up with the whims of a child. Also, his job here was done. Yachiru was one of the few that was immune to his charms, Itsuki just attributed her immunity to her childish mindset.
Seeing Itsuki disappear, Yachiru showed a sad expression before looking at the two collapsed figures,
"Maki-Maki…"
Itsuki then later felt Toshiro"s and Gin"s reiatsu clashing but didn"t act, instead, he made his way to the 13th Division where Shunsui, Ukitake and Byakuya were already there.
- Unknown Location -
Ichigo had currently woken up and was shouting at Yoruichi for not bringing Rukia. Yoruichi got p.i.s.sed off at Ichigo"s att.i.tude,
"Shut up! It was impossible for me to get Rukia, did you see who was holding her!"
"That pretty boy? The one with the weird eyes?"
"Yes, currently you are not Byakuya"s match, let alone him."
"If he decided to make a move, let alone you even I wouldn"t have been able to escape. Did you forget what Zaraki told you before you lost consciousness?"
Ichigo remembered Zaraki muttering something before he fainted. At first, he never paid attention but now looking back, it seemed to be some sort of warning. He tried remembering very hard,
"…You gave me a good fight, so don"t go die somewhere else. I don"t like doing this, but I have no choice…I"ll give you a warning…watch out…White hair…weird blue eyes…"
Unable to fully recall he was able to get the general gist of the contents. At first Ichigo was surprised, he didn"t expect to receive a warning from a man like Zaraki, but this meant that the white-haired pretty boy was strong enough for even a man like Zaraki to say such things.
Realisation dawned on Ichigo as he concentrated back at Yoruichi,
"Anyway, forget about him. A far as I know, he is probably against the execution, so right now you will have to concentrate on defeating Byakuya."
What followed was Ichigo"s training in Bankai and the news of Rukia"s execution being moved to the next day.
The next morning, news came of 9th division captain Kaname Tosen capturing a Ryoka. It wasn"t until noon when Byakuya and Itsuki had left the Ukitake resident,
Byakuya looked at Itsuki,
"What are you planning, Itsuki?"
Itsuki didn"t reply immediately as looked towards the Sokyoku Hill where Rukia"s execution will take place.
"Just carry on what you are doing, and it seems you have a guest."
Byakuya had a frustrated look on his face when he saw Itsuki disappearing, before turning to Renji who just appeared in front of him. He returned to his apathetic look as he confronted Renji.
Itsuki slowly made his towards the Execution grounds as he was joined by Soi Fon and Hinamori.
"Found you, Captain."
If they were alone, Soi Fon would just call Itsuki by his name but due to being outside and in public she still maintained the status of a subordinate. Itsuki nodded at Soi Fon while all the other captains made their respective move. On their way they came across a large opening where Zaraki and his entourage had just arrived. The entourage consisted of Zaraki himself, Yachiru, Ikkaku, Yumichika, Ishida, Orihime, Yasutora Sado, a fully bandaged Ganju and Maki-Maki.
Yasutora Sado was of Mexican and j.a.panese descent. He was dark skinned and had wavy, dark brown hair whose bangs covered his brown eyes. He was a tall muscular youth with p.r.o.nounced cheekbones and appeared much older than he actually was.
Not long later, 7th Division captain Komamura and 9th Division captain Kaname Tosen and their Lieutenants, Iba Tetsuzaemon and Hisagi Shuuhei appeared in front of them.
They had a small confrontation which resulted in the two captains calling Zaraki a traitor. Although Zaraki told them to have all four of them confront him, the lieutenants felt they were enough. As Zaraki told them to leave.
Itsuki and the two girls saw this but seeing Itsuki not acting, they also decided to refrain from acting.
Making their way towards the Sokyoku Hill, it all went according to the plot. The Sokyoku hill was a hill with sheer cliffs on all sides. On the furthest side there was a large undercut where the Sokyoku blade and execution stand was located.
Only the Captain and Lieutenants of the 1st Division, 2nd division and 8th division had arrived while only the lieutenant of the 4th division had also arrived. Sometime later, Byakuya arrived and after that, Unohana lieutenant joined when Yamamoto made the fake promise to let the Ryoka go.
Unohana"s lieutenant, Kotetsu Isane, was a tall, young woman with grey eyes and short messy silver hair with strands on the right side of her face that were shoulder-length and styled as two thin braids. She wore a thin dangling red earring on each ear and a standard Shinigami uniform with her lieutenant badge on her left arm.
Once they arrived the execution commenced.
A group of Kido members made their way to the Sokyoku as they all stood next to each rope sealing the giant halberd. Putting their arms together, they made a series of hand signs as blue reiatsu was released from them. One by one, the ropes holding down the Sokyoku were torn apart as they started spinning round, slowly unfurling the Sokyoku. Once the Sokyoku was released from its binding, the ropes shot out like metal sticks off the hill and planted themselves on the ground.
Three cubes suddenly arose from the platform Rukia was standing on as two made their way to her hands and one on her feet. She was quickly raised high up near the top of the execution stand. The execution stand was just two pillars on either side that were connected at the top by a similar sized beam.
Rukia hands were slowly raised by a pair of cubes while the third cube kept her feet together. Suddenly, tremendous amount of flame was released from the Sokyoku heating the surroundings up. The Sokyoku then rose up and pointed towards Rukia while the flames took on the form of a phoenix.
Yamamoto then called the phoenix, King Kikou. Apparently, it was the true form of the Sokyoku once released.
Itsuki looked on as he felt another reiatsu coming their way. It seemed that due to the Sokyoku being released everyone apart from Itsuki couldn"t feel that person making his way towards them. Plus, it wasn"t like he had far to come, the training ground he came from was just underneath the Sokyoku Hill.
Seeing the Sokyoku getting ready to stab her, Rukia had come to terms with herself as Byakuya started to anxiously look towards Itsuki. Byakuya had also known the plans of Ukitake and Shunsui as this time he voluntarily broke the rules for Hisana.
Just as the Sokyoku was about to go through her, Ichigo appeared and stopped the blade. Soi Fon was surprised just like in the anime as the Sokyoku, known to have the explosive power of a million zanpakutos, was stopped by just one.
Just as the Sokyoku was getting ready for its second hit, Ukitake appeared with a shield like object that had the Shihouin"s house crest on it. Throwing a rope towards the bird, it entangled its neck before the end of the rope returned and landed next to Ukitake. Shunsui then shunpoed next to him and they both ran their swords into the shield like object.
They poured their reiatsu into the shield as it then travelled up the ropes and reached the bird, destroying the Sokyoku. Ichigo was also surprised by this as he then went on top of the platform and released Rukia by half destroying the execution stand. Pieces of the Sokyoku fell onto the ground while still in flames.
Yamamoto was surprised by what Ukitake and Shunsui had done while a few more screams were heard. Looking there, Renji could be seen defeating the surrounding kido guards while making his way to the stand.
Ichigo, also saw this and smiled, it was as if he was waiting for this. Then just like the anime he threw Rukia towards Renji. Seeing Renji run away with the criminal, the captains sent Isane and Chojiro while Itsuki sent Hinamori. He then turned towards Soi Fon who was confused as to why Itsuki didn"t send her.
Isane and Chojiro were instantly taken down while Hinamori was able to put up a fight. Still she fell short, and just when Ichigo was about to land the finishing blow, she suddenly disappeared in front of his eyes.
Looking round he saw the girl having a red face and being held by the one he was warned the most about. Then his thoughts were then occupied by Byakuya who also appeared. Kiyone was rushing to Isane when Soi Fon stopped her, though not as brutally as before. Soi Fon was still one to follow the rules like the anime but due to the presence of Itsuki it had become milder.
Ukitake wanted to stop her when he was stopped by Yamamoto. Shunsui then grasped his shoulder and shunpoed away while Yoruichi arrived and took Soi Fon with her. Ise Nanao, Shunsui"s new lieutenant, also left with Shunsui and Ukitake.
What Nanao wasn"t expecting was Yamamoto already being there, but what shocked her more was Itsuki also there. The two faced off as Yamamoto spoke,
"Itsuki, what is the meaning of this?"