24 She's the one for me.

Chapter Twenty Four. (Edited by CDoggo: Heyyo! It's 7:16 AM when I began editing this and uhh, I'm extremely sleep deprived. So there might be a few mistakes :p but I hope you enjoy the chapter anyway!)

''I somehow expected this to be… I dunno, better protected, I guess?'' Ichigo muttered, the group of three now making their way towards the senzaikyu.

It had been around half an hour since they left the secret training grounds, and Ichigo and Kuromiya were getting quite impatient. The empty streets made him somewhat curious, it made no sense to him how the place wouldn't be guarded by at least a few high ranking soul reapers.

If he had only known that there was a demon in the form of a man waiting for them past the main stairs, then he might have understood the reason behind it.

''This is kinda boring.'' Kuromiya whispered at the orange haired soul reaper, making sure that Yoruichi wasn't able to hear his words. He knew damn well which was their main objective, but even then it was in his nature to seek some kind of entertainment, and this sure as hell wasn't entertaining for him.

''Oh yeah? Wanna race then?'' Ichigo whispered back at him, a cocky smile now adorning his face. The fifteen-year-old had been training nonstop with the flash step and polishing his sword techniques, and he was eager to show it to his friend. ''I'm sure I can give you a run for your money now."

''I wouldn't be so sure about that.'' Kuromiya replied, his smile growing at the prospect of a new challenge. ''I might have rescued Rukia on my own by the time you get there Ichigo.''

''You two, stop that.'' Yoruichi appeared in between them, her human form showing that she didn't plan to keep hiding herself with her cat appearance. The shocked faces of the teenagers revealed that both of them had been somewhat unable to follow her movements, proving that she wasn't called the 'Goddess of Flash' for nothing. ''Besides, we can see the tower already, an hour should be enough to reach it at this speed.''

If the three of them wanted to remain hidden, then masking their spiritual pressure and using just enough of it to move was their best shot at it. It was impossible to mask one's reiatsu completely, the best they could do was to diminish their spiritual energy output to the bare minimum.

''Huh… It's so boring, though.'' Kuromiya frowned at his own words, reminding himself that his zanpakuto spirit had said a similar thing to him. Perhaps there was some truth to Kenpachi's statement regarding 'the strong people' finding pleasure in battle, because he had been itching for a chance to test the result of his training for a while.

''Just bear with it for awhile.'' Yoruichi told him, glancing towards the white tower with her trademark sly smirk on her face. ''I promise you, we can do something fun once we are back at the human world.''

''... Huh, I'm suddenly not bored anymore, how strange.''

''You two stop with the flirting already!'' Ichigo barked back at them with a visible blush, he had experienced this more than a couple of times these last few days. ''I don't want to hear your innuendos anymore!''

The orange haired soul reaper flash stepped a little bit faster, with the full intention of creating some distance between himself and the two figures behind him. Yoruichi and Kuromiya just shared an amused smile at the teenager's reaction, both matching Ichigo's speed with Flash Step and Bringer Light respectively.

. . .

''He's coming… In fact, both of them are coming.'' Kenpachi Zaraki knew it, no, he felt it. The two enemies he had been waiting for were now approaching the tower, of that much he was sure. ''That's perfect, I want to face both of them at the same time.''

''But Ken-chan…'' Yachiro pouted at him, the little pink haired girl feeling more than a little frustrated by her captain's antics. The man had said himself he couldn't feel their spiritual pressure, and now he was able to feel them, but somehow had no idea of their actual location. ''It doesn't make sense! Are you just making this up?''

Kenpachi grinned, the wounds he had been inflicted had somewhat closed without receiving any sort of treatment, but the captain was far from making a full recovery. His injured hand was still injured, with just a few simple bandages going around his wrist.

It didn't matter to him though, he wasn't planning to use both of his hands anyway, so the man didn't care one bit if he wasn't able to wield a sword with his bandaged hand.

''Heh, I told you already.'' The man said, the wind blowing made his bells jingle as he replied to his clueless lieutenant. ''I'm strong, I just know it.''

''You are so weird, Ken-chan!''

. . .

''Captain Komamura!'' Iba called for his captain, seeking to confirm if his captain was able to detect it too.

The captain and lieutenant had finished their preparation a long time ago, asking for the permission of the Captain Commander to go and look for Zaraki. No matter what said man thought, the information Kenpachi might have had about the intruders was too valuable for them to just ignore.

''Yeah, i feel it.'' Komamura replied to his lieutenant, who was doing his best to keep up the fast face at which his captain was moving. ''Three small spiritual pressures, but…''

The anthropomorphic wolf frowned, his metal helmet covering his animalistic features from the rest of the world.

''The three of them are moving too fast.'' The wolf-man concluded, his frown only deepening at the realization that he might have found the intruders. ''But their reiatsu doesn't match with their speed… There's no other explanation, they must be concealing their spiritual energies.''

Iba nodded at his superior, he had been unsure about it, but his captain's words confirmed his own suspicions.

''What should we do, Captain Komamura?''

''It's obvious.'' The captain replied, there was no doubt in his mind regarding what he should do, regardless of the amount of enemies he was going to face. ''We must stop these intruders, no matter the cost.''

. . .

''... I don't really like wearing this stuff.'' Ishida frowned, his glance landing on the soul reaper's clothes that the three of them had stolen from a few shinigami after knocking them out. He fixed his glasses as a frown appeared on his face. ''A quincy shouldn't be wearing the clothes of a shinigami, no matter the reason.''

''Ishida-kun…'' Inoue muttered, a sad look on her face as she recalled the story Yoruichi had told them about the quincys. She didn't know a whole lot of details about it, but she understood that soul reapers and quincys where enemies just like a hollow would be.

''It can't be helped.'' Chad said, not really caring about what he was wearing; all that mattered to him was finding Ichigo and rescuing Rukia, nothing else. ''We will save a lot of time if we don't have to hide from them.''

''I'm sorry, it was a dumb idea.'' Orihime apologized while bowing to her classmate, she hadn't really given much thought about how Ishida would feel about wearing the clothes of the group that exterminated his own people. ''We can change again if you…''

''No, it's okay.'' The quincy assured the kind girl, his hand touching Inoue's shoulder while comforting her with a slight smile. He was quick to hide his own personal feelings, prioritizing their current mission over them. ''Chad is right, besides the sooner we get out of here, the better.''

Chad didn't make a comment on it, keeping his focus on their surroundings while making sure no one was eavesdropping on their conversation.

''We don't want to give anyone a reason to suspect us, so we should leave this place.'' Ishida was the first one to talk once he had managed to fix the situation, the three of them turning towards the white tower that was now visible from their position. ''Let's move.''

. . .

''Yoruichi…'' Kuromiya started, he was feeling two spiritual pressures approaching them, and one of them was captain level, at the very least. His gaze landed on the woman at his right side, both of them fully aware of just how quickly a captain could cover the distance between them.

''I know.'' The woman bit her lower lip in frustration, it wouldn't take them too much longer to reach the senzaikyu, and somehow they had been discovered before that. ''... It's a captain, and the other must be a lieutenant.''

''... What should we do?'' Ichigo asked while looking at both of them, it was obvious that a battle against the captain was imminent.

There wasn't an immediate answer from anyone present, so an awkward silence fell upon the group.

''I will stay.'' Kuromiya was the one to break the silence, making Yoruchi and Ichigo look at him with shock written all over their faces. ''Don't look at me like that, one of us has to do it, and to be honest I'm bored to death right now.''

''Kuromiya, you can't really mean that! It's not just a captain, he's with his lieutenant too!'' Ichigo was the first one to react, shouting at his friend while the three of them kept moving. ''If we fight them together then…''

''Then what? Wasn't our objective saving Rukia?'' He interjected, the three of them feeling that the captain would reach them any second now. ''You two move on before the other captains sense us too.''

''But…'' Ichigo wasn't convinced just yet, and just when he was about to do that, a hand on his shoulder made him stop mid-sentence. Said hand belonged to Yoruichi, who now had a stern look on her face.

''He's right, Ichigo.'' Yoruichi told them, much to their surprise. Based on her previous reactions whenever Kuromiya insisted for them to move on, he had thought she would have been the one to disagree with him.

''Can I trust you with this?'' The purple haired woman asked him, meeting his gaze for a brief moment to make sure her words reached him. ''You better not lie to me.''

''Is that even a question?'' He asked back while smiling at the two of them, this was what he had been waiting for, after all. ''Of course you can, now go!''

Their reaction to his words was instantaneous, both of them moving onwards while Kuromiya stopped, landing on the ground and waiting for his new opponents to arrive.

The captain's presence now was no more than a few hundred meters away from him, but his mind was in an entirely different place right now.

'To think that she would have never agreed to something like that a few days ago, and now she trusts me to handle a captain and a lieutenant...' Akihiko thought with a smile, drawing his zanpakuto out of his black scabbard. 'There's no doubt about it, she's the one for me.'

Two shadows smashed themselves against the ground, cracking it all around the place and making a cloud of dust and debris surround them, hiding their figures.

''It's about time.'' The pale boy told the two newcomers as the cloud of dust dispersed, taking a good look at their appearance. ''Mhm, it's a shame, I was expecting to find a cutie but…''

Komamura towered over his opponent, the sheer size of the captain was twice as much as that of a grown man. His helmet only showed a pair of gleaming yellow eyes, making his overall looks even more threatening.

''... Neither of you seem to fit that description, so I think we should explore other options.'' The teenager finished, his smirk still plastered all across his face.

The captain of the seventh squad didn't react to his taunts, meanwhile standing next to him, Tetsuzaeomon Iba heard their exchange in silence, his focus fixated on the direction from which Yoruichi and Ichigo had disappeared.

''Those clothes… And that sword.'' Komamura noted, speaking for the first time since he had arrived. His gaze lingered on the teenager's appearance, unsure on what to make of it. ''It was reported that there was a soul reaper within the intruders… But he had a massive sword and orange hair, so you don't fit the description.''

''I felt like mixing it up a little bit, so I dyed it.'' Kuromiya replied to the man, the smug smirk on his face growing by the second. ''And about the sword, well… I guess you will just have to find out.''

''... You kid!'' Tetsuzaemon growled, drawing his sword and preparing himself to fight the kid that dared to disrespect his captain. Just when he was about to launch an attack, the voice of his captain reached him from a few meters behind himself.

''Wait, Iba.'' Komamura talked, his gaze still focused on their opponent. ''You need to follow the two that left, otherwise…''

''Yes, sir!'' His lieutenant replied with a quick nod, there was no doubt in his mind that his captain would be able to beat the kid in front of them with little but no trouble.

''Sorry, but that's not happening.'' The voice of Kuromiya cut their conversation short, a trail of green light gathering around his feet as he vanished from the spot he had been standing on.

In less than a fraction of a second, the boy who had once been at more than twenty meters from them reappeared just in front of the shocked lieutenant, closing the distance between them in a single step.

Iba didn't even have time to blink as he saw their opponent slashing with his zanpakuto straight at his face, and he fully knew he wouldn't be able to react in time to it.

Kuromiya smirked in mid-air, his blade now at mere centimeters from severing the man that intended to give chase to his friends.

''Tenken!'' In that instant before the lethal strike was able to connect, Komamura's voice was heard and an immense shadow covered the boy, making him look to his right side just in time to notice a massive sword approaching him.

Calling the sword massive was an underestimation, the sheer length of the blade that threatened to slice him was of a five-story building, and said colossal sword was swinging at him with the full intention of splitting his body in half.

Kuromiya moved his zanpakuto in an improvised guard, giving up on the idea of attacking the lieutenant, moving his sword mid-swing and switching its trajectory to match the incoming blow. The two strikes connected and a massive burst of energy was sent outwards from the collision, each fighter producing an insane amount of energy.

The result of the clash was incredible, a gigantic cloud of dust covered them as the ground splitted under the strength of their clash. Then it happened, one figure was sent flying backwards with incredible force, that person going through five buildings until it finally managed to stop.

Tetsuzaemon Iba blinked, their whole exchange happening in that insignificant time that he spent blinking, unable to even perceive what had just happened, he had a baffled look adorning his face.

. . .

''... Holy fuck.'' He muttered, looking up to the sky with genuine surprise in his face.

The person in question was no other than Kuromiya, who had been launched like a ragdoll through more than a hundred meters and a couple of buildings.

''... So that was a captain's shikai, huh.'' He whispered, feeling his arms still tremble from the sheer strength that Komamura's strike packed. ''It's quite impressive, i didn't expect it to be so fast.''

That had been Komamura's first sword release, known as 'Tenken', he could summon a small part of an immense creature that would mimic all the movements he made, so if he made a sword swing, a giant sword would appear, mimicking his own movements.

''Oh well.'' The teenager got up from the ground with a quick jump, cleaning his dusted clothes with his free hand. Feeling a few drops of blood falling to the ground from a cut in his forehead, he licked his lips with an amused smile.

A wave of his spiritual pressure exploded all around the place, sending pieces of the broken buildings all around him breaking into even smaller pieces. The amount of spiritual energy he was releasing manifested itself all around him, in the form of a sickly pale green aura.

''... That just means I won't be able to contain myself.''

End of chapter twenty four.