Confronting Demons

(With Rukia)

Night had fallen in the Soul Society. Now would be a time for rest, to slumber in peace for the duties of the next day. But the realm was still in turmoil, an endless search for the remaining ryoka and the aftermath of Aizen's death still had the entire Seireitei in turmoil. A good comparison for the storm of emotions in Rukia's heart, the words of Ganju Shiba still ringing in her ears.

"You're pathetic." Every stinging statement was a tug of a knife in her heart. "Just a scared girl running from her guilt." Why did she never tell the Shiba clan? They deserved to know the full story, but she left. Was she scared? Is this why she's so willing to accept the punishment of Soul Society? Was letting herself die really so much more difficult than facing the punishment from the Shiba clan? No, it didn't matter anymore. Her fate was sealed the moment Ichigo attacked the Head Captain, she failed everyone she cared about. There was no saving her now.

"Ichigo." She muttered, memories of their time together replaying in her head. The way he acted in the face of the overwhelming danger of the hollows, the kindness he showed her during her time in the Living World, the offer that Orihime and Tatsuki left open. "Would he even have me?" She wondered, thinking back to the thoughts she had the first time she imagined being with Ichigo. She dropped to the floor, tears pouring from her face. "Please. Just leave me behind!" She cried out, feeling despair creep into her heart.

(Orihime and Isane)

The two stared at each other, trying to put up an intimidating front. One to rescue a friend and escape an unjust punishment while the other is the second in command of the healing squad. Both would rather not fight, but the other is leaving little recourse for that. They soon shifted into their respective fighting stances, one of martial arts and the other for swordplay.

"Any chance you can let me through?" Orihime asked politely with a happy smile, hoping it would work. "I don't like fighting too much."

"Neither do I." Isane replied. "It's why I'm a medic. But I can't let you through." She then asked in a similar manner. "Please come with me?" They kept smiling before they turned serious and charged at each other. Isane swung her blade at Orihime who swiftly ducked under it to deliver a swift palm strike to her side. The tall woman staggered back a little and brought her blade down in another swing, making Orihime jump back but was caught by a rope of light. "Bakudo #4 Hainawa!" Isane chanted, trapping Orihime in her kido. "Surrender please." She asked again.

"Kouten Zanshun!" Orihime called out, having her attack destroy her bindings. "Thanks Tsubaki." She said, bringing out all of her fairies. "Let's do this." Her spirits started to fly around rapidly, putting the lieutenant on edge. Erring on the side of caution, she made a forward charge which was deflected by a barrier. "You can't break through my barrier Isane-san." Orihime said politely, still trying to dissuade the fight. Isane disappeared in a burst of shunpo that Orihime was not expecting. She turned just in time to see her opponent inside her guard, so she did something risky. With one hand she caught the hilt of the sword and the blade with the other, wincing as the metal cut into her hand. The shocked Isane, who was pulled off balance and elbowed in her chest and forced back with a kick. Then Orihime took the time to realize how bad she hurt herself. "Wah! My hand!" She cried, in chibi mode with tears gushing out of her eyes.

"Ahh! Don't worry!" Isane called out. "I am a medic!" She said, taking Orihime's hand into her own while applying a healing kido. "Repairing any major nerve damage, cuts to the bones." She muttered as she let the healer in her take the dominate role. "There, just need a few stitches, and I'd advise against catching swords like that ever again."

"Don't worry!" Orihime chirped, the pain already gone. "I've got this! Souten Kisshun!" She called out her healing shield and repaired the rest of her damaged hand. "I could've fixed it myself, but thanks anyway." She said, happily showing off her fixed hand. Isane could only stare in shock at the display of healing.

"That, was, AMAZING!" Then she started gushing over it, grabbing Orihime's hand and examining it all over. "No scarring, completely healed, and so smooth!" She said, feeling out Orihime's hand. "So soft, so gentle. You're a natural healer! Whatever you did made it like your hand was never cut at all!"

"Thanks!" Orihime said as they giggled for a few seconds. "I feel like we're forgetting something." There was a pause before they remembered they were supposed to be fighting. After a quick shout of realization, they jumped back and returned to their respective fighting stances.

"Your power is impressive." Isane said. "Time for me to reveal mine! Run Itegumo!" She called out, making her sword create two smaller blades from the base at a 45 degree angle. With her new blade, Isane charged at Orihime again by disappearing in a burst of shunpo, relying on speed to throw of the barrier maiden.

"Santen Kesshun!" She called out, erecting her barrier to her back and having Tsubaki attack the lieutenant. The small fairy circled the tall medic, looking for a chance to attack or to create an opening for Orihime. Either way was fine with him. He took a chance and charged through her guard, passing between two of the blades while Orihime did the same. Tsubaki at her stomach and Orihime punching her chest. Isane staggered and coughed painfully as the air was forced from her body. "Sorry about this, but I need to find Ichigo." Orihime said, raising her hand. "Tsubaki, Kouten Zanshun!" She called out, noticing her arm was bleeding again. She then realized that Tsubaki was moving very sluggish all of a sudden.

"That's my Zanpakuto, Itegumo's ability." Isane said, catching her breath. "Anything caught in the field of my three blades becomes numb. You won't know if your life is in danger after a touch or cut of my blade." She spoke in a serious tone. "It's really useful if you run out of anesthesia for field surgery. Plus it can reduce fevers and swelling with it's cold aura!" She said happily and proud.

"Wow! That sounds really useful!" Orihime said, genuinely impressed while she healed herself and Tsubaki. She saw the lieutenant tearing up before hugging her.

"Thank you so much!" Isane cried out. "I'm a poor fighter so I rely on being faster than my opponent but I just don't have any skill for it. I'm one of the weaker lieutenants. All I can really do is heal people." Orihime felt sympathy for the silver haired girl and returned her hug.

"There there." Orihime cooed, gently rocking the girl back and forth. "I really don't like fighting either and Tsubaki is my only real attack power." She said, before remembering something she was working on. "Though there is this one move I've been experimenting with. You can tell everyone you pushed me to a last resort!" She offered the lieutenant.

"Really?" Isane asked, feeling hopeful that she'd get a more positive image with her colleagues.

"Yep! Watch." Orihime let go of the girl and stepped back. She took a few breaths to center her focus and create the barrier she wanted. "Shiten Koushun." She recited, making four of the sprites reconfigure into her normal shield, with Tsubaki in the center. "My shield that reflects all attacks back to my opponent." She reached out her hand to grab something as the sprites began to shift in their places. The three points converged on each other while the top two tilted upwards to form a rough hilt while the center point extended to form a large blade shape. "Kenten Koshun. My twin strike blade." She wrapped her hand around the hilt portion and swung her blade a few times to get used to it. "It's a work in progress." She chirped and swung at Isane, who managed to block, and then both were shot back by the unexpected recoil. "Definitely needs more work." Orihime groaned.

"Yeah." Isane agreed as they got up for the next bout when a voice stopped them.

"Stop." It was stern but motherly. They looked behind them to see a serene and beautiful woman in a captain's Haori with a long braid in front of her walking towards them.

"Captain Unohana." Isane whispered out as the two fighters dropped their stances.

"Guess this is it for our fight." Orihime said, just before Unohana started to correct their stances for their respective fighting styles.

"Much better." Unohana said with a smile. "Now continue." She said surprising them. When they looked at her with the unasked question, she responded. "You two started this fight, you finish it. I'll step in if it starts to get dangerous." She said while other members of her squad went about gathering the people Orihime knocked unconscious. "Just think of this as an impromptu swordsmanship lesson Inoue-san. You can pay us back by helping at my division's barracks, so go ahead with your fight."

"But Unohana-san-" Orihime started.

"Go ahead with your fight." The captain interrupted, more sternly, making the two fighters cuddle with each other with fearful eyes. Nodding as they trembled in front of the frightening captain.

(Uryu vs Mayuri)

'Alright. Need to focus.' Uryu analyzed his situation. One captain and a lieutenant, one was obviously strong but there was nothing from the lieutenant at all. 'Start out slow, get a feel for his abilities.' He thought, already firing several shots from multiple directions. Mayuri managed to dodge each one and join him on top of a wall while examining the damage.

"Very impressive." He said to the focused archer. "That was Hirenkyaku, wasn't it? Impressive that a youth like you has mastered it to such a level."

"Flattered. But I always felt kind of slow in comparison to my cousin." Uryu said, staying cryptic about his and Ichigo's relation. "But I was always the better shot." He disappeared again, firing from a distance and surprising the Quincy expert with the speed and power of the arrow. "Licht Regen." Mayuri heard from above, before Uryu unleashed a barrage of arrows down on him. He landed and waited, sure that the captain managed to evade.

"Gathering Reishi at the shoulder for a great number of arrows fired in rapid succession." Mayuri said, looking closely at Uryu's left arm. "Such fine condition too. A perfect specimen of the Quincy." He sneered at the archer. "You've almost sparked my interest in your kind again." Uryu responded by quickly dissolving his bow and striking Mayuri twice. First with an elbow to his face and a palm strike to the center of his chest, pushing him back quite a bit. 'Those attacks are a lot stronger than his muscle structure would suggest.' Mayuri thought, reeling back in pain. "As interesting as your displays are, I would rather find that girl and begin researching her instead. Claw out. Ashisogi Jizou." He called while unsheathing his blade, making it turn into strange trident sword with a creepy golden baby face praying at the guard. "Try not to die, I might want to dissect you later." Mayuri said, suddenly charging at him with the lieutenant suddenly running into the archer, letting the mad scientist slash them both.

'Damn it! I let my guard down!' He berated himself as they fell, wincing from the pain of the blade cutting through his flesh. 'How can he do this to his own subordinates?' He wondered, remembering the grunts from earlier that almost died before Orihime saved them. 'Why did she do this willingly?' The lieutenant staggered before Mayuri punched her.

"Didn't I say to not let go even if your arm was cut off?" He growled in fury. "No matter, you served your purpose. He's beaten now." Uryu glared at the mad scientist and tried to move his finger, only to find a complete lack of mobility in all of his limbs.

'Tranquilizers? Is that the effect of his Zanpakuto?' Uryu tried to figure out what was happening. 'Maybe not. I can still feel the ground, so it might just be that my motor functions are disabled. Good thing I have just the counter.' They heard the girl coughing and struggling to breath.

"You must have some iron will though." Mayuri said. "That's a pretty substantial cut but you haven't cried out once. Not the first time you've been wounded by a blade?" Uryu briefly flashed back to how his Blut Vene was trained.

"Yeah, I've been cut plenty of times." Uryu spoke in defiance. "Training is not meant to be gentle."

"Interesting." He said as he raised his blade and Uryu prepared himself, until Mayuri got fed up. "Be quiet Nemu!"

"Forgive me, Master Mayuri." She gasped helplessly. "Please give me some of the medicine. My lung seems to be damaged." She said, freezing the captain in a sense of indignant rage. He stomped over to deliver his vengeful fury when Uryu chipped in.

"That might not be completely unreasonable. That was a deep cut." Mayuri shifted his glare back to the downed Quincy. "Aspiring doctor." Uryu said, explaining his concern.

"Do you think me an idiot!?" The captain roared, grabbing his lieutenant by her shihakusho and slamming her against the wall. "Do you think a body I created will fail from this level of injury?" He demanded, surprising Uryu.

"Wait, you made her?" He asked, drawing upon what limited knowledge of Shinigami technology he had. "Mixing gigai and gikon?"

"Correct." Mayuri said, surprised by the the Quincy's quick deduction. "Mixing these techniques, I created this girl. My daughter, Nemu Kurotsuchi." He threw her to the ground. "And I shall treat her however I please."

"The hell you will!" Uryu growled, getting ready to attack the moment the captain drops his guard.

"Is this the pride of the Quincy crap your kind prattles on about?" The captain asked, annoyed. "It's the same every time. During all my experiments and studying of the Quincy. By the honor of the Quincy I won't do this, by the pride of the Quincy I won't allow that. It was so annoying until I finally killed those worthless subjects." Uryu was frozen, wondering how many of his kind suffered, or how many innocent lives this monster must have tortured. "Getting viable specimens was always such a pain. Bribing the Soul Reapers that were watching the remaining Quincy to let them die, then recover the soul forms for experimentation." He dug out a small picture and tossed it to Uryu. "The last worthless test subject I had. Kept screaming the names of his students or grandchildren." Everything else was mute to Uryu in that moment. On that picture, was his grandfather's mutilated body. The man before him was the one responsible for his grandfather's death. He glanced at the Sanrei glove, thoughts of murdering this man being the sole thoughts in his head. He wanted to rip off the glove, gain the unparalleled power of the Letzt Stil and reduce this man to ash. His nearly ripped it off when something deep in his mind rang out.

"Why do you fight Uryu?" He heard his father's words echoing in his mind and he froze. "Ichigo is trying to become stronger to face a terrible monster. One that will destroy everything. That is his reason to get stronger. What is yours?" The words continued to ring, making him hesitate.

'That's right.' He recalled. 'I'm doing this to help Ichigo. I promised not to do anything foolish.' The fog of rage and hate was slowly clearing, letting him think rationally again. 'You're still looking out for me, even when your not here.' He smiled, devising a plan on crushing the man. He laughed. "This is the results of your research?" He said through his chuckles. "Urahara could've made twice the discoveries with a fourth of the damage!" He began laughing hysterically, fueled by Mayuri's rage contorted face, knowing the history of the two. "You're more of a butcher that a scientist." He said, watching the madman get closer. "Because a real scientist would be ready for anything regarding his field of expertise." He growled before flashing in front of the captain and grabbing him by the throat, slamming him into a wall.

'What the, how?' Mayuri question as the Quincy defied his Zanpakuto's ability. He then noticed the thousands of spirit threads wrapping around them both and the boy's glowing, bulging veins. 'Ransotengai! And he's channeling Reiatsu through his veins to increase his strength?' He analyzed while pinned to the wall, marveling at the reveal of information he could study in spite of the danger he was in.

"Pride of the Quincy? Don't make me laugh." Uryu growled, using his mastery of the rare Quincy skill to immobilize his enemy. "I don't give a damn about that pride and honor. What good was any of it if it nearly made an entire race go extinct? I only fight for what I believe in." He then brought out one of the Seele Schneiders on his waist and stabbed the man through the gut. "Make no mistake, I want to kill you." He stared into Mayuri's eyes with cold hate. "You murdered my grandfather, all because of some failing research instead of proving something by making the Quincy a viable ally to the Soul Reapers like we once offered." He brought up his black Quincy cross. "Urahara made this. It lets me create bows and arrows that can purify hollows like a Shinigami's Zapakuto, something you never thought to try." He created a small hand sized bow and shot off the captain's leg. The air was filled with the sadist's screams of pain. "I could pick any number of methods to kill you, but that wouldn't do anyone any good." He took hold of Ashisogi Jizo and impaled Mayuri with his own blade. "I can feel another captain nearby. You can beg them for help." He said before Mayuri began to melt.

"How shameful indeed." The disembodied voice of Mayuri spoke out. "To think I disregarded the possibility of the Quincy evolving. Though you've insulted me so much, I can't help but want to relish in studying your corpse when the other captains kill you." Uryu glared at the retreating slime.

"You'll be lucky if you face me again in battle Kurotsuchi. But pray my cousin never finds you or what you did." Uryu warned. "Ichigo is far stronger than I am."

"Ichigo Kurosaki?" Mayuri spoke in surprise. "He's supposed to be descended from Soul Reapers."

"He is, on his father's side." The only sound left was the demented and elated laughter of the deranged man, relishing what experiments were already coming to mind. "Freaking nutjob." Uryu grunted out before collapsing, being caught in someone's arms.

"That is interesting to hear Ishida-san." Unohana said, gently lowering the boy to the ground. "But more so impressive that you didn't kill him when you had the chance." She said, already beginning treatment on the downed Quincy. "Why is that?"

"It wouldn't have done any good." He said, seeing no point in lying to the woman that was healing him. He didn't have it in him to fight anyone at the moment. "It wouldn't bring back my grandfather or the Quincy that died. And it would have made life that much more difficult for Ichigo and his mission."

"And that mission is?" She asked cautiously, but Uryu already fell asleep. She smiled gently at the young archer. "Lieutenant Kurotsuchi, Would you help?" She asked the artificial Shinigami, whom she already healed.

"Yes, captain." She said simply, grateful to the Quincy for some reason.