CHAPTER 72: LATER THAN THE HERO

Inside the cave, Ichigo got ready to go and save Rukia immediately after achieving his Bankai, but as he wiped the blood from his body and wrapped his injuries with bandages, he turned around to ask Yoruichi,

"Where is that Houryu guy and his lizard…?" He asked

"... I don't know where he is… after all he left hours ago…" Yoruichi answered with an annoyed tone.

"... Ok… but what does he even go around doing?" Ichigo asked again as he finally finished wrapping his injuries with bandages

"... I wish I knew… but it doesn't really concern us as long as he isn't harming our plans…" Yoruichi answered back again with a thoughtful look as she pondered over some of the things Renji had said when he had burst in here to also train his Bankai.

'What does that Houryu want, that has to do with the Kuchiki family…' she thought

'...Tch… why isn't Urahara here with all his smart ideas… he's the one that usually does all this complicated thinking.' Yoruichi thought with a scrunched-up look.

"...Also, Ichigo… HURRY UP…! They won't wait for your arrival to start the execution…!" Yoruichi shouted towards Ichigo, hurrying him up by taking out her annoyance on him.

"Okay, okay… I'm hurrying…" Ichigo shouted as he grabbed Zangetsu and held him on his back before turning to Yoruichi, who for some reason was now wearing some sort of cloth wrapped around her face to cover it like a mask.

"Let's go… also what is that on your face…?" Ichigo asked as he looked at Yoruichi's strange "face wear."

"None of your business…" Yoruichi said as she shunpoed to his back and grabbed him by the collar and shunpoed her way out of the cave.

(A/N: To note, Shunpo is also known as Flash Step)

After getting out of the cave Yoruichi let go of Ichigo and they ran towards the soukyoku hill, flash-stepping all along the way. As they ran Yoruichi told him of her plan to take one of the captains present at the scene while Ichigo did his part, which was rescuing Rukia and fighting anybody that tried to stop them.

Yoruichi and Ichigo also sensed a lot of spiritual energies clashing at different locations of soul society, one of which was Abarai Renji against Kuchiki Byakuya, though that battle seemed to have reached its conclusion with its victor pretty obvious.

"Renji…" Ichigo whispered to himself as he ran.

In other parts of soul society…

Various battles tore up the surroundings. Byakuya just finished dealing with his dumb lieutenant who thought he could defeat him just because he finally achieved Bankai. Byakuya just shook his head as he walked away towards the soukyoku hill, thinking about how annoying it was for him to be attacked by someone who didn't know the full story and was too dumb to ask, but just kept on going onto philosophical rants about how he swore to himself and whatnots.

'...I don't know anything about that ryoka, but since he came along with the other ryokas, they must want to rescue Rukia and would definitely show up at the soukyoku hill.' Byakuya thought as he walked, not aware of how wrong and also how right he was.

Else where…

Zaraki had taken Orihime, Ganju, Ishida and Chad on the way to the Soukyoku hill, though they did end up getting lost quite a few times on the way, thanks to the "directions" of vice-captain Kushajishi, who was riding on Zaraki's back.

But now, Zaraki was involved in a fight against two squad captains of the jotei 13. He had just finished cutting down Kaname Tousen and was now in a battle against Komamura and the annoying thing about the fight against both of them was that, the two of them kept on shouting out their ideals and kept on using them to judge him.

"Can you stop shouting already and focus on the fight… you're annoying me with your annoying voice…" Kenpachi shouted as he battled Komamura's Bankai giant.

'I hope my battle against that guy would be more fun than this.' Kenpachi thought as he fought on with a crazy smile on his face.

Other captains busied themselves with their own plans as Hitsugaya Toshiro took Rangiku Matsumoto with him as they went towards the central 46 while Ukitake Jushiro was busy readying one of his clan's artifacts to use on the soukyoku hill.

The seal on the soukyoku was finally released as the ropes that held the soukyoku cut away from their holds and began loosening.

The captains present all looked at the ongoing situation with different types of looks on their faces, and some of them wouldn't even look.

Rukia stood under the gigantic stand with her hands bound behind her back. Three cube-shaped blocks detached from the floor below her, two went towards her hands and held them up with some kind of force while the last one went to her feet and then together, they began to make her levitate and rise upward to the top of the stand.

As soon as she reached the top, the soukyoku burst into flames and then uprooted itself out of the ground where it was stabbed into before fully engulfing itself in its flames and then transforming itself into a huge bird of flames.

Underneath most of the captains were looking at this scene in awe yet Byakuya's hand was tightly gripped to his sword to prevent himself from taking action before he suddenly stopped as he sensed something.

The transformed soukyoku charged at Rukia, hoping to burn her to ashes before suddenly,

*CLASH*

Ichigo had arrived to block the soukyoku just in time.

"YO…"Ichigo said to Rukia as he held back the soukyoku with his sword at his back, but they ended up having a shouting rally as the captains and everyone else beneath watched with visible shock on their faces as a weapon rumored to have the explosive power of a million zanpakutou's was just blocked by a kid with one.

Suddenly the soukyoku drew back so it could attack a second time, Ichigo quickly noticed that and went into a stance, ready to withstand the attack, all the while ignoring Rukia's shouts at him that what he was trying to do was impossible.

Meanwhile, Ukitake had just arrived, and he quickly saw what was happening and threw a rope that was attached to the shield-like thing he was holding, at the transformed soukyoku.

Just when the rope was about to reach the neck of the firebird and wind itself around it, someone suddenly appeared like he dropped from the sky and kicked the rope while at the same time using a sword in his hand to stop the charge of the soukyoku the second time, shocking everyone at the scene once again.

"If the hero always arrives late enough to save the day…"

"Then what about somebody who arrives even later than the hero…?" The white-haired figure said with a smile on his face.

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COMMENTS, POWERSTONES AND REVIEWS... I WANT THEM ALLLL...

But anyway... uhm, since I plan to go crazy in the arc... I will be taking 3 suggestions from my lovely readers... so let me know something you'd want to see happen and I'll pick the best three to input into the story.