They are a nice pair of thighs though.

Chapter Nineteen. (Edited by CDoggo: hehehehe it seems like you guys really enjoyed the cliffhanger I wrote in, maybe i'll do it again soon <3)

Thirty.

Kuromiya's blade shattered to pieces, the bland looking asauchi was unable to handle the sheer pressure that his opponent had been exerting in their last clash. However, Zaraki had no time to capitalize on this sudden change of events, because right when he thrust his zanpakuto straight at the teenagers throat, Kuromiya suddenly disappeared, leaving no trace physical trace of how he did it, or where he currently was.

Now that their clash was over, Kenpachi ended up falling back on top of one of the only buildings that were still standing in the rementants of the battlefield. This last clash had managed to shatter almost every single piece of architecture in the immediate area, leaving him with a practically clear view of the whole battleground.

'He is gone?' Kenpachi questioned, his head turning from side to side, searching for the black haired boy that had just been about to recieve his final attack. No matter where he looked, he was unable to find even the slightest hint regarding his former opponent's current whereabouts.

''Ken-chaaaan!'' The girlish scream of his lieutenant managed to get his attention, distracting him from his current task. Zaraki glanced over at Yachiru with a questioning gaze, wondering why she followed them. ''Where did 'Necklace' go?''

''Yachiru, you followed us?'' Kenpachi asked, allowing the pink haired girl to land gracefully on his left shoulder. The fact that he could ignore the injuries he had sustained was a testament of his immense stamina and pain tolerance.

''Hmhm!'' Yachiru replied with a nod, smiling at her captain while ignoring the destruction that their fight had brought towards the seireitei. ''But i don't get it! There's no point in escaping with those wounds, he's going to die anyway!''

''He is not dead.'' Zaraki replied with a smirk, there was not a single doubt in his mind that not only his opponent was alive, but he had also managed to avoid any fatal wounds he had been inflicted with that weird ability he had used. He also had a feeling that this would be the first encounter of many between the two.

The captain of squad eleven touched the place where his eyepatch had been just mere minutes ago, reminding himself that this opponent had been able to somehow survive to even that, and was able to run despite the extreme wounds he had suffered.

''He is not?'' Yachiru tilted her head to the side, unsure on how could a soul reaper, much less a simple human being survive wounds of that caliber that had been inflicted by no other than the current Kenpachi. ''But i saw it, Ken-chan! You butchered him up and down, there's no way he survived.''

''You idiot.'' Kenpachi said in between laughs, ignoring the girl that was now throwing a childish tantrum in his back. ''Don't you remember what Matsumoto told us? I could tell, he didn't care one bit about his injuries.''

Zaraki could tell that Kuromiya wasn't suicidal, so that confidence and lack of self preservation didn't come out of thin air.

''Hm… I guess it doesn't matter.'' The pink haired soul reaper pouted at him, still unsure on what to make of the man's vague explanation. ''You had fun, right, Ken-chan?''

''Yeah… It was a nice battle.''

. . .

''... Jesus christ, I almost lost my head there.'' Kuromiya 'popped' back into existence, with most of the injuries he had been inflicted now completely gone, but a nervous expression adorned his face because of the last second before 'Bookmark' activated.

'That was a horrible battle.' He thought, his glance landing on the still very present slash all over his right shoulder. 'Welp, I sure hope he isn't mad about how our fight ended.'

He winced in pain, the wound itself was quite long and deep enough to stick half of his finger inside it, and you could see a small bit of his shoulder bone.

''Now then… What do i do now?'' He asked himself, he had not thought about what he would do if he actually survived the fight.

Kuromiya didn't have time to figure out the answer to his own question, since not even a tenth of a second after he was finished with that line of thought, a blurry figure almost materialized out of thin air, not more than a few centimeters away from him.

''I knew it.'' The voice of the woman that the teenager had grown used to reached his ears, while his gaze landed on the human form of Yoruichi. ''I think i figured it out, this ability of yours.'' She stared him down, taking in the final result of the battle.

He wasn't too shocked about her presence, to be quite honest it was comforting to think she had decided to stay and watch over him in case something went wrong.

''Naked again? We are in the middle of the streets, ya know.'' Kuromiya pointed out, it was a sight which he had grown used to seeing since he had met the woman. ''Then again, if we don't hurry up then half of the seireitei will be here in a few minutes.''

''... Right.'' She agreed, though her pair of yellow eyes still pierced through him with no small amounts of concern. ''But after we are out of here, you and me are going to have a talk.''

''Alright, but we need to leave.'' He prompted her, it was in their best interest to leave the area before someone spotted them. ''Like, right now.''

''Do you promise it?'' The woman grabbed his wrist just before he managed to get away from her, it was clear that she wasn't about to let him forget about their conversation. ''We are going to talk about it, right?''

''... I promise.''

. . .

''That spiritual pressure i felt…'' The lone figure of a thin black haired girl wearing nothing but a white robe; this figure belonged of course to Rukia, who was still locked inside the senzaikyu.

These last two days had been quite hectic, even from her isolated state at the tower she had been able to pick up on a few of the conversations that the guards on the gate had. Their talk about a group of intruders had reached her ears.

'I told them to forget about me.' Rukia had her legs tucked in between her arms, her mind recalling the immense clash of spiritual pressures she had felt earlier that day.

'That green light… It was him, i can tell.' Throughout her whole life, there was just one person that had possessed that greenish aura when releasing his spiritual pressure, and a single name plagued her mind when thinking about it.

'Akihiko, please go back.'

. . .

''... Is this really necessary?'' Sweat dropped off Ishida's face, watching as for the third time during this one day Chad blasted a group of soul reapers out of their way. ''We could just… I don't know, like sneak around?'' Ishida was not having a fun time fighting his way through waves of soul reapers.

''There's no time for that.'' Chad replied, each one of them had been able to feel recognize the reiatsu of their classmate, and the reiatsu of his opponent wasn't easy to miss either. ''Like the group we defeated before said, we need to head towards that white tower.''

The group turned their heads towards the massive white tower that was barely visible from their current position, it would take them more than a few hours to reach it even at max speed.

''The fight is already over.'' Ishida reminded the big teenager, while fixing his glasses with a swift movement from his hand. ''If we could feel it, then you can bet that every other soul reaper in here could feel that to, if we head there…''

''Ishida-kun, Sado-kun... '' Orihime watched the exchange between her two classmates with no small amounts of worry, resting both of her hands against her chest.

'That was Kuromiya's spiritual pressure, i'm sure of it.' The orange haired girl thought, but there was something else that worried her too. 'It was just for a moment but… Kurosaki-kun was also fighting.'

''Inoue?'' Ishida asked, slightly shaking the girl's shoulder. ''We are going to find a place to rest until things calm down, alright?''

''... Yes.''

. . .

''Don't move too much.'' Yoruichi warned him as she finished covering the teenager with white bandages all across his chest and his right shoulder, sealing it closed with medical adhesive tape. ''That is a slash from Kenpachi Zaraki, so even I won't be able to do much about it, it's going to take some time to heal.''

It was already late in the evening, several hours having passed by after their initial confrontation against the current Kenpachi.

The two of them had been forced to make a sudden stop, the wound Kuromiya had sustained required immediate treatment, and so after making an acceptable distance between them and the area where the battle had transpired, they had found themselves a place to rest.

Said place was once again an empty building, the whole area itself was cleared out too since the battle from earlier had grabbed the attention of most of the soul reapers in the area.

This particular building was a simple two-stored japanese styled house, with nothing but empty rooms inside it. It was quite unlikely people would check if the building had inhabitants.

''Yeah, that man is something else.'' Kuromiya added, allowing his body to fall back to the floor, though Yoruichi did use her left hand in order to lighten the fall.

''I told you, be careful.'' She repeated, watching as the blue eyed boy finally was able to rest against the tatami mats that layered the floor. ''We can talk about the whole thing later, just rest for now.''

''I'm fine though, it's not as bad as you think.'' Kuromiya assured the dark skinned woman, though he had trouble believing his own words.

Earlier he had been able to disregard most of the pain that the wound caused him due to the sheer adrenaline that had coursed through his body. Unfortunately for him, as soon as that was gone, the full impact of his injuries hit his body like a freight train.

''You are not.'' Her response didn't make itself wait, making her disagreement known. ''We should rest, we have plenty of time still.''

''Do we? I felt Ichigo's spiritual pressure somewhere around the entrance of the senzaikyu, we can't just let him go there alone.'' The black haired boy reminded his companion, he was sure that she had been able to feel it too. ''With all the stuff that happened earlier, it's suicidal to go to that place all by himself.''

''He's coming towards here.'' Yoruichi interrupted him before he could finish his own explanation. ''I felt his spiritual pressure heading towards us just after finishing his fight, that's why I have been leaking spiritual pressure these last few hours. With enough luck, he might be able to recognize it and we could regroup.''

''... Fine, then.'' He half agreed, to him it still felt like a bit of a gamble to bet on Ichigo's ability to track spiritual pressure, he had never been too good at it after all. ''I guess we need to have that conversation now, no?''

''No.'' Yet again, Yoruichi interrupted him mid-sentence, placing her hand on the teenager's forehead and whispering a single word. ''Shibireyubi.''

''Isn't using kido a bit too extreme?'' The black haired boy muttered, feeling his whole body going numb. He recalled this particular kido being the one Urahara used to immobilize Rukia earlier in the series.

''You should rest for now, once you're back up to peak condition then we can talk about it, yeah?'' The faint glow on her hands confirmed that she was using kido on him right now, the woman most likely felt that otherwise he wouldn't rest at all.

Not even a few seconds later, the injured teenager felt his vision going blurry, and just before his head managed to hit the floor he felt a pair of feminine hands gently moving it towards her lap, making what was surely a contender for the most comfortable pillow in the world.

''You know, you and Kisuke can be quite caring when both of you feel like it.'' Kuromiya commented nonchalantly. ''They are a nice pair of thighs though.''

End of chapter nineteen.