Currently reading: The Dark is Rising & Higurashi: When they cry
Currently listening to: Invasion-Bleach OST
Currently writing: BTtS final chapters
Yes, I've finally started on BTtS again! XD After finishing Project SOUL, I decided I should probably work on the ideas I have for the final chapters and get it all straightened out. I wrote chapters 37, 38, and 39 before doing 36. I have to get the part where Ichigo comes in and Shinji's start of the fight with Aizen written up first. I'm kinda not wanting to do it right now because all the fighting I wrote before it (aside from chapter 38) was kinda the same as 36 will be. Someone attacks Aizen and ultimately fails... That's basically the main pattern of the whole Karakura arc in the manga right now anyway. I originally hadn't planned to go any further than chapter 38, but after 39, I'm going to write chapter 40 and an epilogue. Chapter 40 should be the last before the epilogue, but I don't think I'll guarantee it. The ending of this story will probably be put up with the epilogue I had planned in the same chapter. I dunno... Hopefully I'll work on that soon. Since I've had so many fail ideas for the ending, I thought I might as well post up the first fail chapter 36.
(former) Chapter 36: Rules of Engagement
A heavy reiatsu approached Sayuri and the others. It wasn’t nearly as intense as that a captain’s or Espada’s. It was more like a lower level Hollow. Sayuri observed three female Arrancar moving closer to them with their zanpakutos drawn.
“Stop right there! You‘re not getting out of here,” said one with short, navy blue hair and a horn protruding from her forehead.
“Oh, come on. What kind of line is that? That's so cliché. Can’t you think of anything else to say?” Sayuri said bluntly.
“Could you be any less subtle?“ Rukia said. The short Arrancar, most likely a Numeros, leapt at her, but one of the two others accompanying her held her back. The one holding her had dark skin and brown, wavy hair with tiara like headband around her forehead. The other had straight, greenish hair and pale skin with straight cut bangs and dressed in medieval clothing. [1]
“Calm down, Apache,” the darker one said.
“Shut up, Mila Rose! Aizen-sama told us to eliminate any intruders,” Apache said, or so they assumed that was her name.
“So uncivilized,” the third said with a fan covering half of her face. “You half-wits need to stop quarreling in the presence of our guests.”
“Half-wits?!” Apache and Mila Rose said in unison. “Sun-sun!” The two growled at her.
Toshiro cleared his throat to get the three Numeros’ attention. “Would you please stop behaving like a bunch of barbarians?” he said. The girls stopped their squabbling and directed their anger toward him.
‘And he said my mouth would get us in trouble,’ Sayuri thought. Apache attacked him from the front while Mila Rose attacked from behind, but Sayuri blocked Mila Rose’s zanpakuto with her own. Sun-sun stood back and watched her fellow fracción fight. They were inferior to her.
Apache formed a cero on her horn and was about to release it when someone interrupted her. “STOP!” Halibel commanded her fracción. “These people are not your enemies. Please sheathe your zanpakuto.”
“Halibel-sama...” Apache said in amazement.
“It was all Apache’s fault!” Mila Rose said
“Why you... You wanna go, Mila Rose?!” Apache growled. She raised her fists as Mila Rose readied herself to pounce on her. Before they could fight, Halibel took them both by the wrists and gave them a serious look. Actually, it was hard to tell what the look on her face really was because of her uniform covering almost half her face. The two stopped their fighting again and looked at her apologetically.
Sayuri looked at Halibel like she was crazy. Since when did Espada think that Shinigami weren't their enemy? She didn’t understand what was going on. Halibel noticed the dumbfounded look on her face. “Don’t worry. We’re not here to harm you,” she said. “I’m part of a resistance created by the late Tercera Espada, Hartman Sinia.”
“It’s true,” Stark stepped forward. “We can help you get out of here, but there’s just one thing standing in the way.” It was true that the remaining Espada were on their side, but there was still one other standing in their way: Yammy. He was a ruthless monster. He didn’t care who it was that stood in his way. He just wanted a decent fight.
Sayuri always thought that Yammy was a weakling because of the ten tattooed on his body, but she was wrong. When Yammy activated his resurrección, his number changed from a ten to a zero. Halibel explained that the Espada ranked from zero to nine rather than one to ten. Yammy was the only Espada whose number changed. It was unlikely that she and her companions would stand a chance against him.
Just as they were talking about him, the Zero Espada interrupted them and laughed maniacally. The ground vibrated as he stomped over to the group. “Well, would ya look at that! For a bunch of cockroaches, they made it pretty far,” he said. Sayuri and Toshiro jumped back when Yammy punched the ground where they were standing. There was a large crater where they were previously stood. Then he picked up Orihime and started to crush her.
“Strike from the heavens, Rai-Joshin,” Sayuri said. Rai-Joshin’s blade changed and electricity surrounded Sayuri once again, but this time it was different. It was denser than before and almost as heavy as Toshiro’s when he was at full power, but not quite that powerful. She jumped up and sliced off the arm that held Orihime.
“Why you little-” Yammy said angrily. He tried crushing Sayuri with the fist that he had left, but she shunpoed out of the way. It was like a game of whack-a-mole. Yammy’s fist was the hammer and Sayuri the mole that he failed to hit. It came to a point where craters covered every bit of ground within a hundred foot radius of Yammy.
“Rule number one: don’t call me little,” Sayuri said from behind him and stepped on his shoulder. The large Espada turned his head, and she hit it with the Rai-Joshin’s hilt, causing his neck to twist painfully. She landed on the ground before him, and he twisted his neck back into place. He nearly smacked her, but she shunpoed to his other side. Sayuri spent so much energy just running from Yammy that she started to slow down from exhaustion. She slowed down so much that he was able to knock her to the ground with a great impact. Sayuri propped herself up on her elbows. and she scowled at him. Her breathing was labored. His fist was about to crush her, but she blocked it.
Sayuri heard a hysterical laugh coming from behind Yammy. She recognized it as the bloodthirsty laughter of Zaraki Kenpachi. “Well aren’t you something!” he said as he took his eye patch off. He must have recognized the power of the Zero Espada if he was willing to take his eye patch off.
“Yay! Ken-chan’s got a playmate!” Yachiru said from Kenpachi’s shoulder. Yammy turned his attention toward captain/vice-captain duo. Yachiru jumped off of Kenpachi’s shoulder, and the people watching the scene before them cleared out of the way as well.
“Rule number two: do not befriend Zaraki Kenpachi,” Sayuri muttered.
Kenpachi rushed at the Espada with a wicked grin on his face. A challenging fight was to Kenpachi as a new toy was to a child. He slashed away at Yammy and occasionally allowed him to land a hit or two. It had been awhile since he had such an exciting battle.
Ending theme: Showing Off from Bleach OST 3
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Like I said, it was a total failure. There's no way I could use it anyway because Sayuri and the others have already left HM at this point. On the flip side, I will put up some snippets of my current chapters 38 and 39. ^-^
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"S-Sayuri... Sayuri!!!" Toshiro's face held an expression of pure terror. He refused to believe that any of what just happened was real. Sayuri was fighting Ichimaru; the girl lying on the ground below couldn't have been her. It was just another one of Aizen's illusions.
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Ichigo watched as Toshiro furiously attacked Aizen over and over. His own hatred had blinded him. As the young captain wore himself down, it occurred to Ichigo that he should be helping. That's right, he could fight, too. Why wasn't he doing anything, then? The seconds that passed by felt like minutes, maybe even hours. Before he knew it, Aizen had plunged his zanpakuto through Toshiro's chest. He fell ever so slowly to the ground a few feet away from Sayuri. Was this what they meant by the senses being forced to the absolute limit?
Somewhere in the midst of Ichigo's paralysis from his own thought, he regained his battle instinct. He put a better grip on Zangetsu and rushed at Aizen. He attacked him with great force, though not as recklessly as Toshiro had done. Never run away; fight with intent to kill; resolve to win. These were the rules that all Shinigami lived by, especially Ichigo. Dieing was not an option.
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When Toshiro awoke, he was no longer surrounded by the chaos of battle. He stood on a grassy hilltop, much like the one where he spent his evenings watching the sun set in Karakura town. A light breeze carried the sweet smell of freshly cut grass and blooming flowers. The grey skies of the approaching winter were now a calm blue. He put a hand to his chest. Where Aizen had stabbed his heart was untouched. The cuts on his face and arms were no longer. If anything went through his mind just then, it was the thought that he had died and gone to heaven. The innocent atmosphere surrounding the hilltop gave him peace of mind, but he couldn't stay there. He had to go back to Karakura and fight.
Tall figures cloaked in white began to approach him from all sides. There must have been about seven of them. Their faces were hidden by their hoods. "Hitsugaya Toshiro," came the deep voice of the tallest figure. "Do you wish to fight again?"
xXxXx
They're better than what I originally had planned, I promise that. XD
