28 It has been a while.

Chapter Twenty Eight. (Kinda Edited by CDoggo: I have to go to school in a hour and Zask has only wrote like 8 paragraphs smh)

''We?'' Rukia's question came out of her mouth before she could even fully process the woman's words, the thought of her brother approaching them to stop them didn't even register on her mind.

''Mhm!'' Yoruichi nodded with a smile at her, she knew escaping from both Byakuya and Ukitake while taking Rukia with her was wishful thinking, but informing her about their presence was the very least she could do. ''... And I'm sure you know who the others are, too!''

''... I told them not to come.'' The rest of her words got caught in her throat, a lump forming inside it while images of all the people she had known in the human world flashed inside her mind. Clenching her hands into fists, she gritted her teeth while repeating the same words from before yet again.''I told them not to come!''

''I don't know about the rest, but…'' Yourichi started, thinking carefully about her next words. It was clear that the girl in front of her had already accepted her death, so now having confirmation of her friends coming to a place like the Soul Society was more than her already resigned self could handle. ''Regardless of what you told them, those two would still have done whatever they wanted, so don't blame yourself for it.''

''... You are right about that.'' Releasing a resigned sigh, she held back the tears that threatened to come out and faced the woman next to her, with more than a few questions in mind. ''What are you all even going to do? This is the Seireitei, there's thirteen captains that will stand in your way!''

''Right now we are not prepared for it, that much is true.'' Yoruichi nodded, the feeling of certain people closing the gap between them told her that time for talking was about to be over. ''That's what i'm here for, Ichigo and Akihiko would be mad at me if i didn't tell you this much at least, but…''

Yoruichi walked towards the outside of the white tower, with a somewhat insecure Rukia following her steps with more than a few questions still present on her mind.

The moment both girls stepped out of the senzaikyu, the pair found themselves looking at a couple of unmoving guards on the floor, who had been protecting the only entrance to the insides of the tower.

This once entrance was in the form of a narrow red bridge, so narrow that it wouldn't have enough space for four people to walk alongside each other while crossing it.

''They aren't dead… Right?'' Rukia asked, after so much time in confinement, she was somewhat unable to feel small energies, so she was unsure of their current state. The woman next to her was the former Executive Militia Corps Commander, and former Captain of Squad Two no less, which meant that killing was something she dealt with on a daily basis.

''Don't think so.'' Yoruichi replied after taking a quick glance towards the unconscious guards, still feeling a slight pulse of spiritual energy from them. ''Though they might need to make a long visit to the Fourth Division, that's for sure.''

''In any case, I'm sure you want to know what we are planning to do…'' Yoruichi resumed her explanation from before, while three sudden spiritual pressures assaulted their senses, each one of them comparable to captain-class shinigami.

''Well…'' Yoruichi focused on a certain one, smiling as she saw Rukia widen her eyes while recognizing each one of them. ''I suppose he can tell you about it himself, right?''

Pointing towards the right side of the bridge with her thumb, a cheeky smile adorned her face while a green light covered their vision, forcing Rukia to cover her eyes from the blinding light.

''Yo.'' The sound of a pair of feet touching the ground reached their ears before the light vanished, though neither of the girls present needed their eyes to recognize the person in front of them. ''It has been a while, Rukia.''

''... The same goes for you too, Byakuya Kuchiki.'' Kuromiya finished, his gaze turning to the one exit to the bridge, where the captain of squad six stood blocking their one path out of the bridge.

. . .

''... What a disappointment.'' Watching the bloody figure of his enemy fall down to the ground, Kenpachi Zaraki couldn't help but feel annoyed. ''You were doing so good, and just when you feel that your friend is still alive you relax? What a joke.''

Truth be told, their battle had been raging on for quite a few minutes already, and the teenager had managed to cut him more than a couple times, which had been more than enough to make the blood-thirsty man exhilareted, after all there were just a bunch of people capable of doing so.

''T-that can't be…'' Ichigo's zanpakuto snapped in half, breaking as Kenpachi's own blade had managed to pierce through it. He fell to his knees, a river of blood coming out from a wound in his chest, forming a pool on the ground as he fell against it.

''You find about a couple good news and just relax in the middle of a battle? Don't make me laugh…'' Kenpachi turned his back at the agonizing teenager, who had been just delivered what was surely a fatal wound. ''It was a nice stretch, at least… I suppose I should go and look for that friend of yours, I'm itching for a rematch.''

'Damn it.' Ichigo cursed inside his mind, feeling all his strength leaving just as quick as his blood emanated from his wound, making it a truly miserable sight to behold. 'Damn it, damn it, damn it! I can't die here, I can't…'

'I still want to fight, I promised them, didn't i? I would win and move on, that's what I said!'

The whole battlefield suddenly turned quiet after those last thoughts, not even the sound of his ragged breathing or blood falling to the ground reached his ears, in fact, Kenpachi himself appeared to have been stopped in time, much like himself.

''Y-you…'' Ichigo's two brown eyes widened, a figure that he recognized very well appearing out of thin air, looking at him with an unreadable face. The view of a middle-aged man with a trimmed beard and wearing a long black cape looked back at him, a pair of equally black glasses hiding his eyes from him.

''... Zangetsu?''

What was in front of him was nothing else but his own zanpakuto spirit, who had appeared to answer his inner pleads.

. . .

More than a few kilometers away from there, four people stood in the bridge that led towards the senzaikyu, the green light that had covered the place vanishing at last, allowing all of them to get a good look at the newcomers, both staring each other down in silence.

Much to Rukia's surprise, one of the two people that had been dominating her thoughts these last few days was quite different from what she recalled, for he was no longer the normal human she remembered him to be.

Long gone was the usual school uniform he used to wear at all times, replaced by a black shihakusho, with white stripes running down from his shoulder blades until they reached his waist, with two similar white bands going around his neck in the form of a collar.

Yet little did that matter to her, her current worries laid on the dry blood coloring his face, his left arm that hung from a weird angle as if it was broken, and the many bruises in his body.

''You…'' Rukia was the first one to break the silence, it was one thing to know her friends where here, seeing them was much harder, and forced her to accept the reality of the situation. ''Akihiko, you really are here…''

''Huh, that's unexpected…'' Kuromiya muttered with a raised eyebrow, he had been expecting for the girl to snap at him, much like she had done with Ichigo. However, it appeared that the reality was far from what his memories showed him.

Rukia was on the verge of tears, her shaking shoulders, trembling lips and rapid blinking, all of it made it quite clear that she was about to break into tears.

''What's with that reaction? I'm alive, you know!'' Akihiko reminded the girl, waving his one functional hand in front of her face. ''Don't look at me as if i am a walking corpse, thank you.''

''... Look at yourself.'' Rukia said while shaking her head, feeling her throat tightening for each word she muttered. ''You are all beaten up!''

'Thank god she didn't see me after i bombed myself.' Kuromiya added inside his mind, otherwise who knew what her reaction would have been to that.

''It's not that bad, you know. I beat the fuck out of some furry captain while coming here… He had a giant bankai too!'' He added while attempting to clean the dry blood from his face, but failing miserably to do so. ''Ugh, mind helping me out a little with this?''

''I… Sure.'' The strangeness of his behavior ended up making her too confused to even cry, and so soon enough she used the sleeves of her confinement's attire to clean the blood from it, tainting the white sleeves in red.

. . .

While all this was going on, Yoruichi was doing her own thing. Waving her hand with her sly smirk directed at the still silent Byakuya, doing her best to get a reaction out of the emotionless man.

''Not even a little smile for me? To think you used to love when I visited the Kuchiki's mansion!'' Yoruichi said, laughing when Byakuya's eyebrow twitched in mild annoyance.

''I have no words for a traitor.'' The stoic head of the Kuchiki Clan replied, a slight frown forming in his blank face while looking at her for the first time since he had arrived. ''Especially not for one that dirtied the name of the Four Great Noble Houses, Yoruichi Shihoin.''

''That's cold, little Byakuya!'' Yoruichi replied to the man, not bothered by his words in the slightest. ''Just a couple hundred years and you became such a boring man! All that stuff about the rules and etiquette was not meant for me, so i left. Don't be mad at me just because you don't have the guts to do the same.''

. . .

''Auch.'' Kuromiya winced, both at Rukia accidentally gracing a cut on his face while cleaning it and at Yoruichi's words, both had been listening to their exchange with mild interest after all. ''That has to hurt, in more than one way.''

''I can't believe she's talking to nii-sama like that.'' Rukia nodded at the pale boy too, sharing a short smile with him while she finished cleaning his face, now with her sleeves covered in red. While watching his movements, she couldn't help but mutter a few words at him. ''... You have really grown stronger, haven't you?''

''You will have to wait and see.'' He replied to her with a smirk, turning his back at her and facing towards their soon to be opponent. ''Now, i just want to make this clear.''

''... I'm taking you back to the human world, whether you want it or not.'' He wielded his zanpakuto, aiming it towards their one enemy cutting his path. ''If I can't do it today, I will do it later, is that understood? Because if i see that defeated expression again, i'll punch it out of your face, midget!''

''W-what!? Weren't you here to rescue me? What kind of savior threatens the one he's going to save with hitting her!?'' Rukia replied back, the confusion on her tone now replaced by indignation as she pointed at the boy next to her. ''Forget that, what did you just call me!?''

''A midget! Now sit there and wait. I need to handle a few unfinished business with that brother of yours.'' Kuromiya turned towards the man in question, smirking as he noticed that both Yoruichi and Byakuya had been listening to their conversation for a while.

''D-don't just end the conversation like that, I'm not finis…'' Rukia fumed, noticing that the pale boy was not listening to her, she stepped on the ground with anger. ''Once i'm out of here, you'll get what's coming to you!''

Next to her, Yoruichi smiled slightly at those words, it might have gone unnoticed by the girl herself, but her words implied that she was going to get out of the place alive. Somehow that silly conversation seemed to have given her back some trace of hope.

''What's up? It has been a while, hasn't it?'' Akihiko talked to the still unmoving man, shortening the distance in between them while leaving both women next to the entrance to the cell. ''I'm sure you must have a few questions in mind, right? Let me guess…

''How did you get the powers of a soul reaper?'' Byakuya interrupted, now walking towards him too. ''Answer and I might just grant you a quick death.''

''You see, when you stabbed me in the human world you granted me the powers of a soul reaper, so i'm here to capture you for committing the crime of...'' Before Kuromiya could even finish the sentence, Byakuya vanished in a mindblowing display of speed, leaving nothing but empty air where he had once been.

Despite his amazing speed, Kuromiya's eyes followed the man, and vanished much like his opponent had done, intercepting him with his own movements in the middle of an attack, both clashing their swords exactly on the middle of the bridge.

''Man, you just can't take a joke, can you?'' Kuromiya muttered in between laughs, taking pleasure in the visible surprise that was reflected on Byakuya's usual stoic face. ''You'll find that this won't be as easy as the last time, Byakuya Kuchiki.''

The spiritual pressure released from this single clash pushed the weakened Rukia to the ground, while Yoruichi watched their exchange with mild interest, truth be told, now that they had informed the girl about their intentions, their job was as good as done for the day.

With Ukitake soon to arrive and who knows how many other captains coming behind him, it was impossible to retrieve Rukia with their current strength.

''Don't talk so big, kid.'' Byakuya pushed back with his zanpakuto, gaining the upper hand in their clash due to his opponent only having one usable arm. ''This changes nothing, i will rip away those shinigami powers of yours, just like i did with your friend, no matter what you do.''

End of chapter twenty eight.