33 We are back.

Chapter Thirty Three.

Important, read the paragraph comment before reading the chapter.

''Mhmm… Where are we going, necklace?'' Yachiru questioned while resting her head on Kuromiya's shoulder, using her two hands to grab his shinigami robes to keep her from falling to the ground. While the two of them kept running past the buildings and confused shinigamis who weren't able to even detect their presence, Yachiru pointed towards the direction at which Ishida's presence could be felt. ''Your friend is over there, isn't he?''

''I don't recall telling you that I was gonna help him.'' He muttered back, his attention was still focused on following the trace of Orihime and that drunk shinigami, Ishida could deal with Mayuri by himself, of that much he was sure. ''Besides, stop calling me that, my name is Akihiko.''

''Mhm, I prefer necklace though.'' Yachiru pouted, though she couldn't help but notice that the boy's necklace was no longer visible on his neck. Although she was more than a little interested about that sudden change, she still introduced herself. ''I'm Yachiru Kusajishi, lieutenant of squad eleven!''

''... Is that so?'' Kuromiya spoke in a whisper, both of them stopping on the top of a two-storey building, their gaze landing on a man that seemed to be running for his dear life while carrying an unconscious woman.

''Oh, that's Maki Maki!'' Yachiru said in surprise, recognizing the shinigami who kept running as a member of her own squad. ''That's strange, that girl with him isn't from our squad.''

''That would be one my friends, then.'' Akihiko muttered, both of them vanishing from their spot at the roof as he performed Bringer Light.

''Gaah!'' The drunken soul reaper clashed against a sudden figure, making him fall to the ground alongside the girl he was running with. ''W-what the hell was that... ''

''This might be a little sudden but…'' Kuromiya watched with an amused smile as the man fell on his ass, panicking at how someone had managed to appear in front of him in the blink of an eye. ''Hand over that girl.''

''How… No, who are you?'' The fallen soul reaper asked, his body felt incredibly heavy, even breathing was starting to feel more difficult around the strange kid that was in front of him.

. . .

''You idiot.'' The sound of blood splattering all over the ground was heard on the battlefield, and it was soon followed by the sound of a body falling to the ground with force. ''I taught you to hold on, even if your arms were ripped out!''

The voice of Mayuri Kurotsuchi echoed through the streets, watching the form of his lieutenant falling down to the ground after he had slashed her. In his hands, the released form of his blade dripped with the blood of both his lieutenant and the teenager he had been battling just a few seconds ago.

''M-My deepest apologies.'' The lieutenant of squad twelve,also known as Nemu Kurotsuchi replied to her superior, making an attempt to remain conscious despite the bloodloss.

The whole situation had been orchestrated by her captain, who had ordered her to grab their enemy since he was proving to be faster than predicted, and so she had obeyed and was slashed down alongside their now unmoving opponent.

''Hmph.'' Mayuri didn't bother to glance back at her, his attention focused on the black haired teenager who was breathing heavily while resting against a wall. ''Oh well, I wasn't expecting much from you anyway…''

''This should be good enough.'' Mayuri muttered, walking closer to the fifteen-year-old that remained unmoving against the wall. ''Amazing, isn't it? I'm sure you have noticed but one slash of my sword is enough to paralyze whatever it cuts.''

'This sick bastard.' Ishida felt a trail of cold sweat falling down from his face as he attempted to move his right arm where he had been slashed at, but found himself unable to do so. 'I didn't expect him to use his own lieutenant to get a clean strike at me… Damn it.'

''What? You have suddenly turned quiet… Though I suppose it doesn't matter.'' Kurotsuchi's grin widened, taking slow steps towards the fallen quincy. "You'll be screaming soon enough."

. . .

''You heard him, Maki Maki!'' The high pitched voice of a girl caught the attention of the shinigami who remained unmoving on the ground. ''Stop asking dumb questions and give us that girl.''

''L-L-Lieutenant Kusajishi!'' The man screamed in terror, he had encountered four monsters in the span of a few minutes, and that was more than what a normal man like him could handle. ''W-What are you doing with this kid?''

''That's none of your business.'' Kuromiya replied to the man while he poked the unconscious girl on the face, the fact of the matter was that his left arm remained broken, and her powers could fix that in a matter of seconds. ''Orihime, wake up already.''

''Mnh.'' The girl whimpered as her eyelids started twitching, and soon enough she regained her consciousness. The moment she woke up, her confused gaze started looking all around the place until her greyish eyes landed on a familiar face.

''Kuromiya-kun!'' Orihime yelled in surprise, a smile adorning her face upon seeing one of her classmates. Her smile didn't last for long though, since her eyes traveled down to his left arm which was twisted in an unnatural direction. ''W-what happened to your arm?''

''This? I fell down some stairs and it broke.'' Akihiko answered matter-of-factly, moving his left arm around without showing much care for its state. Since their arrival at the Soul Society, he had experienced so many painful injuries that a broken arm no longer felt like something intolerable for him.

''Oh, I see!'' Orihime muttered with a quick nod, accepting the silly answer without a second thought. While standing up from the ground, four pieces of the girl's left hair pin started shining in a bright golden light, morphing into two light beams. ''Sōten Kisshun, I reject.''

The golden light beams formed a half-oval barrier around his broken arm under the curious gaze of Yachiru and the still dizzy soul reaper from squad eleven. This was one of the powers of Inoue Orihime, which some could mistakenly confuse for a normal healing technique.

'The power to reject events.' Kuromiya thought, watching his once broken arm be fixed in the blink of an eye. In no less than a couple seconds, the golden barrier disappeared and he tested his arm throwing a few punches to the air, smirking when he didn't feel even the slightest pain.

''You should be more careful with those stairs next time!'' Orihime told her friend while dusting her stolen soul reaper robes with her hands. ''But this is strange, I could swear Ishida-kun and…''

''He's fighting… Over there, I believe.'' Kuromiya gave a short nod to the girl, and while he pointed with his hand towards the direction of the fight. ''I'll head there in a second, in the meantime you should wait here with Yachiru.''

''Yachiru?'' Orihime tilted her head in confusion, looking at the pink haired girl that walked around her classmate while sporting a childish smirk. ''You are Yachiru, then? It's nice to meet you!''

''Yup!" The lieutenant nodded in response, stopping in her tracks in order to take a look to the boy next to her. "You are gonna fight that weirdo from Squad Twelve, necklace? I wanna see!"

"No.'' He denied, shaking his head at the little girl. ''You stay here with Orihime and hide until I'm back.''

''That's boring!'' Yachiru retorted, making her discontent with his decision known. ''I wanna see you fight, jiggles can take care of herself!''

''... Jiggles?'' Orihime tilted her head at the nickname the girl had given her, unsure on what to think of it.

''Come on, it will be like playing hide and seek...'' Kuromiya added, and Yachiru finally stopped shaking her head at those last words.

''Hide and seek?'' She whispered to herself, a childish smile adorning her face as she seemed to reach a decision. ''Okay, I'll do it! But you have to promise me one thing!''

''... I have a feeling I might regret this, but… Fine, what is it?'' Akihiko replied after a few seconds, the pink haired girl was too unpredictable to even bother thinking on what she could possibly want.

''Don't worry, it will be fun!'' She said while jumping onto Orihime's back, not bothering even asking for permission. ''Once Ken-chan is out of the hospital, you'll have to play with him again!''

Immediately after those words, Yachiru started pulling on Orihime's hair while guiding her through the streets to a safer location.

''Yachiru-chan, please stop! Don't pull on my hair!'' Orihime's whimpers reached his ears as the two figures quickly left the deserted street. ''Y-Yachiru-chan!

''Damn it.'' He cursed under his breath, watching as Yachiru started pulling on Orihime's hair while guiding her through the streets to a safer location. ''She didn't even wait for an answer…''

''Whatever, I'll think about it once I'm done with this.'' Kuromiya forced all his worries out of his mind, his focus now back on the matter at hand. His head turned towards the pathetic figure of a middle aged soul reaper crawling on the ground, who was doing his absolute best to flee the scene without being noticed. ''Ah, right.''

The man freezed at his words, turning his head towards him in an almost mechanical motion. Both of them met their gazed, and it was crystal clear from a single look that the man was more than a bit terrified of the teenager in front of him.

''Maki Maki, was it?'' Akihiko questioned while recalling Yachiru's words, he vaguely remembered the face of the man in front of him but chances were that he had been nothing more than a minor character in the world of Bleach. ''Do me a favor, yes?''

''P-Pardon?'' The man felt his words get stuck in his throat, he had been eavesdropping on the conversation and his lieutenant had hinted at the idea that the person in front of him had fought his captain before, and the fact that he was alive after that was utterly terrifying.

''I want you to start running while releasing slow spikes of spiritual pressure in different directions.'' Kuromiya said, he was well aware of the fact that there was a captain approaching and chances were that said person was well aware that there was more than one group of intruders among them.

''I-I… If I do that I'll surely be questioned later!'' Maki replied in panic, he was no fool and was able to understand what the kid in front of him intended to do. ''K-Knock me out! I s-swear I won't tell anyone!''

''I'll sweeten the deal for you, then. Either do what I want, or I'll slit your throat right now.'' Kuromiya smirked at that, he had a ton of gruesome ideas to try out with his shikai after all, and a test subject was needed. With that in mind, he grabbed the hilt of his zanpakuto to make sure he got his point across. ''Sounds like a nice deal to me, right?''

''I… Y-Yes, right away!'' The man started running in the opposite direction of the girls while spiking his spiritual pressure in small intervals, much like he had been asked to do.

'Enough fooling around, then.' Akihiko thought, with his arm now healed and Orihime in somewhat safe hands, he could now focus on his little chat with Mayuri. 'I just need to have a conversation with a mentally ill scientist, no biggie.'

He turned towards the direction of Ishida's and Mayuri's fight, just in time to see a massive pillar of pure blueish pierce the heavens, which was more than likely a signal of his classmate's last resort being activated.

The familiar trail of green light was left behind as he vanished from the now completely empty streets, moving closer and closer towards his objective.

. . .

''This is unfair…'' Rangiku was bored to death, her childish tantrum making more than one of the low ranked members of squad four around her sweatdrop. "Boring, boring! I'm sure the captain told me to stay just to annoy me!"

"Um… Lieutenant Matsumoto." A young woman said in a shy voice, unsure on how to approach the high ranking officer in front of her. "The intruder is stable, what should we do with him?

"Right… Take him to a cell and make sure someone waits around him until he wakes up." Rangiku replied, waving off the young girl with a quick hand gesture. "Make sure he is unable to escape or else the captain will kill me."

The orange haired beauty turned her back to the squad four members, now that her work was done she didn't want to stick around the place even for a second.

"B-But Lieutenant, we need the report or else we won't…" A fragile looking man tried to reason, though he also was waved off much in the same fashion as the girl before him.

"I'm sure my captain can deal with a little paperwork later." Rangiku smirked at that, crossing her arms across her ample bosom. "Send it to his office, it's a little gift of his lovely lieutenant!"

With that, Rangiku left while performing a perfect flash step, an unreadable smile now adorning her face as she started approaching a certain spiritual pressure that she had just recognized.

"I didn't think I would find you so soon." Rangiku muttered in her usual sultry voice, the image of a black haired teenager flashing on her mind. "I'm not one to run after a man, but I have more than a few questions for you..."

"And I won't take a 'no' for an answer."

End of chapter thirty three.