Bleached Slayer
"Are we there yet?" sounded one Zaraki Kenpachi as the small group of high-level individuals made their way through the dark and dusty inner regions of Hueco Mundo. The group had travelled through the white desert for days on end at an impressive pace, only being slightly slowed down by the numerous hollow-attacks, though considering they were all captain-class the thing that had truly taken time was getting Kenpachi to quit chasing the (surviving) hollows afterwards.
"Hey, clown-face! Are we there yet?!" He shouted, annoyed at being ignored, again, by his two silent companions.
Shit-tards, the both of them.
"What did you just say, you imbecile?!" Screeched Kurotsuchi Mayuri as if his mother's honor had been insulted. Though those that knew of the guy would doubt if he'd ever had either one of the two things.
"I said are we there yet, freak. What, your hearing going out after experimenting so much on that body of yours?"
"SHIIIII! Perhaps I should start experimenting on YOU then! It's about high time we found out just how such a lower species like yourself could have such a ridiculous amount of reiatsu."
"Hooh? Is that a threat?" Kenpachi grinned, pulling his blade.
"Be silent the both of. You're captains. Try to behave like it." Sounded from the one in front, leading the group.
"Forget it Kuchiki! For three days straight this oaf has been nothing but an annoyance! I say it's time we rid ourselves of this nuisance once and for all!"
"You're welcome to try the both of you. Heh heh heh." Kenpachi licked his blade.
"Do recall that Zaraki is a vital part of this operation. His large reserve of reiatsu may turn out to be crucial if we are to succeed here. Now quit bickering like children and make haste. We cannot stay too long away from Soul Society in these times." Byakuya emotionlessly drolled on as he continued trekking forward.
"Hnf." "Keh." Was all the response he received as the two other captains started to sprint as well.
"ROOOAARRR!!!" a massive Hollow bellowed as it attacked from the side, only to be sliced in two in the blink of an eye by Kenpachi.
"No, you cretin! How many times to I have to tell you?! Do NOT slay the Hollows! We need them alive for this!" Mayuri screeched.
"Che, it was only a weak one. We got like hundreds of them chasing us a mile behind or so." Kenpachi shrugged, lazily pointing over his shoulder where a massive dust-cloud could be seen in the horizon.
The group had alternated between running and Shunpo-ing all the way since they'd entered Hueco Mundo choosing to circle around most stronger hollows they sensed in their path rather than dispatching them. Eventually they were dragging a rather large group of followers big and small, all dead-set on setting their fangs into the tasty intruders.
It was a pity really that they could not realize that they didn't stand a chance against these certain individuals, and that the only reason they weren't dead already was because the captains had a motive for letting these monsters tail them (though Kenpachi conveniently "forgot" from time to time and struck down one or twenty).
It goes without saying that this procedure was also why none of the captains could bring along any of their subordinates as they simply wouldn't be able to keep up and only get in the way.
"Still, we'll need every last one we can acquire unless we want this to become a suicide-mission." Byakuya shot in from his position upfront, not even looking back as he answered.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. For this "glorious mission to restore balance to the 13 Divisions", right? Hmf! Are you certain this isn't a big waste of time? I could've gone to the human world with Ikkaku and the lot instead. Would've given me an opportunity to challenge Ichigo again. Heh heh." The grin on Kenpachi's face as he finished was certain to send shivers down the young Kurosaki's back no matter how far on the other end of universe he might've been at the moment.
"Our information comes from… trustworthy sources." Byakuya replied, somewhat struggling with the "trustworthy" part.
FLASHBACK
At the Court of Pure Souls the remaining of the 13 captains were gathered for a meeting in the aftermath of the "ryoka-incident". Old Yamamoto Genryuusai, captain of the first division, banged his cane into the floor calling attention to himself.
"There are but a few months until the Hyogoku fully awakens and Aizen takes action. During this spawn of time we must do everything we can to barricade his movements and restore balance to the 13 divisions. Our sudden lack of Three Captains is not something we can take likely." He banged his cane once more for emphasis.
"We may want to send a small platoon to the living world for quick response to any potential attacks" Hitsugaya Toushirou suggested, doing his best to simply appear annoyed and bored at the same time.
"As well as focus on the training of potential replacements for our lack of captains. There are several among our ranks that has the potential I believe, don't you agree Captain Kuchiki." Unohana Retsu offered, gesturing to the captain of the 6th division.
"If you're reffering to Abarai Renji then I wouldn't recommend it. Though he may have achieved Bankai, he's much too inexperienced with it still." Byakuya replied, stone-faced as ever
"These are dire times though. We may want to resort to any option we've got left to us." Komamura Sajin voiced, still seeming somewhat uncomfortable after just recently having quit wearing his mask.
"Hmm, what's the matter Jyuushiro? You're wearing your "thinking-expression"." Kyouraku Shunsui said, calling the attention of the room on the captain of the 13th division who was looking down with his hand on his jaw, obviously lost in thought.
"Hm? AH, No, nothing! I was just thinking." Ukitake blurted out, surprised to find everyone's eyes trained on him. "It really was nothing."
"Need I remind you," Soi Fong started, clearly agitated "That we're not in a situation where we can hesitate with our actions. If you've got an idea then spit it out."
"Though I disagree with Captain Soi's way of phrasing it, I would also like to hear your idea." Unohana gently coaxed.
Ukitake, seeing that he wasn't getting out of this, visually deflated before he regained his composure and addressed the commander. "There may be a way to quickly fill at least one of the holes in our ranks, but the possibility may be dubious at best."
Yamamoto arched an eyebrow meaningfully. "Go on."
"Thank you. Umm… I believe this is something very few have heard of nowadays, but apparently there is a legendary monument hidden deep in Hueco Mondo known as it's heart"
The captains gave Ukitake a dubious look under which he cringed, but Yamamoto spoke up. "I know of this. It's an ancient story that supposedly dates back to before the creation of Soul Society." he said, stroking his beard.
"A legend? Oi, oi, you're not telling us to put faith in some fogey old children-story, are you?" Hitsugaya retorted, making Ukitake flinch again.
"I'm curious though. Could you explain Commander?" Unohana said, addressing the elder.
Yamamoto stroked his beard for a second before beginning. "It was said that at the end of a previous age, the ancient gods rebelled against their Lord, casting the structure of the world into chaos. To oppose this, the Lord of Lords placed it's faith onto one legendary warrior to stop the world,
("was it worlds?" he muttered)
"from descending into oblivion. Apparently it took the rebelling gods' final strength to imprison this warrior, thus existence was saved, but only at the last minute. By then the world was a blank slate needing to be rewritten and it's after these events our world came to be. Story has it that a monument remains at the final battleground somewhere in the depths of Hueco Mundo."
Silence reigned through the room for a few seconds as this tale sunk in.
"It's just an old bedtime-story though" Yamamoto quipped, causing most of the captains to break into almost-facefaults at the sudden break in tension.
"Then we're simply wasting time here!" Soi Fong raged, pointing an accusatory finger at Ukitake.
"But the thing is this monument exists! I have a source who know of its location!" Ukitake defended desperatly.
"And what would we find there, huh?!"
"Historic runes?"
"An old rusty weapon perhaps?"
"The legendary warrior." All eyes turned to Yamamoto who had uttered that last statement. "Isn't that so, Ukitake?"
"Y-yes. Apparently the warrior's soul still remains sealed there to this day. I've heard that it tries to drain the reiatsu of anything within a certain area so even the Hollows can't approach it. That's probably why almost no one knows of it's location. They didn't make it back to report it."
"Hmm." Yamamoto stroke his beard in thought as the captains discussed this among themselves.
"A legendary warrior, huh? Interesting" Kenpachi smirked to himself.
"Umm, I know it's a long-shot, but…" Ukitake eventually voiced up.
"Nevertheless, it's a possibility and as stated we have to investigate every option given to us."
Ukitake visibly relaxed, before he stiffened as the commander raised his next question. "There's just one thing."
"Y-yes?"
"Who exactly is this source of yours?" Yamamoto asked with a hint of trepidation.
Ukitake seemed to gather his nerves before weakly letting out. "Urahara Kisuke."
Everyone present sighed.
END FLASHBACK
It was thus decided that while Hitsugaya would gather a group to patrol the mortal realm, Byakuya, Kenpachi and Mayuri would venture into the heart of Hueco Mondu following Urahara's directions. It was questioned why Ukitake wasn't nominated to go seeing it was his idea, but after witnessing him break into another one of his coughing-fits it was unanimously agreed that he probably wouldn't even survive such a trip.
They needed to be quick about it though since they couldn't afford to leave Soul Society that heavily unguarded for too long with Aizen about.
"Well?" Kenpachi stated as they kept dashing across the desert.
"Well what?" Mayuri asked.
"Are we there yet?"
Before Mayuri could blow his top again, Byakuya decided to answer. "In fact, we are. Look in the horizon."
Both of the other captains immediately looked ahead seeing that everything before their eyes levelled out into a completely flat and barren wasteland, even more so than usual because there wasn't even the slightest HINT of life or vegetation anywhere (read: the every so often barren tree or hollow-insect). Even the landscape had flattened out instead of going in dunes and hills as the rest of the desert.
What they COULD see though was a golden crystal, about 15 feet in size supported by four others ranging from red to black to blue and to green in color.
"That's it, huh? It's a lot smaller than I expected."
No longer had Kenpachi uttered those words before the golden crystal had started to faintly glow. At that instant, all three captains felt a tremendous drain on their reiatsu.
"We must've entered its vicinity!" Mayuru bellowed, knees buckling under the pressure. "It can sense our reiatsu and is trying to feed on it!"
"As Urahara explained, whatever is inside there must be subconsciously noticing our presence and trying to gather the energy needed to break free." Byakuya stated. "Commence the operation immediately." He ordered.
"I know what to do!" Kenpachi grumbled as they broke out of the crystal's reach and started to backtrack, heading towards the ever-growing stampede that'd been chasing them. They then broke off in different directions, circling around the mob of Hollows until they were on the other side.
What followed then was the most deranged example at herding cattle ever to be performed. Between flashing their reiatsu and demonstrating their immense superiority in strength it wasn't long before the three captains had the gigantic flock of Hollows on the run, leaving them with only one way to run: Towards the crystal.
Before they realised what was happening, it was too late. The Hollows' reiatsu were drained like through a straw, leaving only empty husks which disintegrated and turned into dust on the spot. The golden crystal continued to lap up the energy and the more it got, the faster it started to absorb. Soon the massive Hollow-army was nothing but just a few dozen, mostly consisting of Adjuchas and even the rare Vasto lorde as they had bigger reiatsu-reserves and thus took a longer time to absorb. They couldn't escape from the "dead-zone" though because each time they tried a captain was there to violently boot them back in.
As the hollows were devoured the golden crystal steadily started to grow cracks spreading across its entire surface. But as the last hollows finally kicked the big one, something unforeseen happened. The crystal expanded it's reach, violently grabbing hold of the shinigamis reiatsu and drinking away at a horrifying pace.
"Ung! The hell?!"
"It appears the amount of hollows we gathered simply weren't enough. It's reach must've expanded as it's close to breaking free." Byakuya grunted.
"Dammit, this is your fault Zaraki!! This is because you killed TOO many of them!!" Mayuri bellowed, down on all fours under the intense pressure.
"Bite. Me. Clown." Kenpachi grunted.
"Zaraki! Remove your eyepatch!" Byakuya ordered. Kenpachi grinned before complying, removing the parasite that kept his reiatsu at bay and let loose his massive reserves.
In that instant their respective burdens lightened and the captains shunpo-ed out of there and beyond the crystal's reach.
Halting at a safe distance, the three gazed at the crystal as it vibrated franticly.
"... Is this a mission failure then?"
"No, observe. Instead of vanishing, the gathered reiatsu inside of it trashes around more violently."
"With freedom at it's fingertips, it would appear that it's digging into its own reserves desperately. Ku ku ku. Like a caged animal finally spotting its chance to flee, even if it has to gnaw off it's own leg to do so." Mayuri remarked amused.
And indeed the crystal seemed to do just that. The energy trashing around in it caused the ground to start quaking until the four crystals supporting the golden one broke down, allowing it to finally explode apart in a massive blast of energy that reverberated across the sky forcing the captains to shield their eyes. As the light started to dim, they observed a small figure falling from what was once the crystals center, hitting the ground with a soft thud. Falling as well was a sword that imbedded itself into the ground beside the figure.
As the captains finally approached walking across sand-spots that had been turned into glass during the energy-onslaught, they could spot a human-figure lying on the desert floor. A rather SMALL human-figure.
"This is it? THIS is the warrior?! It's just a kid!" Kenpachi guffawed, nudging at the prone form with his foot. "And a really scrawny one at that!"
"This is a clear deviation from my expectations as well. What is the meaning of this Kuchiki?!" Mayuri said, apparently frustrated.
Byakuya remained silent for a few moments, observing the figure. Finally he picked up the sword imbedded in the ground and started to walk away saying. "Whatever its form or age may be, you both experienced that explosion of reiatsu yourself. Whether she'll appear a valuable resource to the Gotei 13 or not is up to the Commander to judge. Cover her up and carry her Zaraki. We will start heading back immediately."
"Yeah, yeah." Kenpachi mumbled, taking off his captain-jacket and wrapping the girl up in it before picking her up. He then started trailing after the two other captains who were already dashing towards Soul Society.
As the group zoomed across the desert at an even faster pace than they had travelled earlier, Kenpachi mused at the child in his arms.
"Just look at her." He mumbled, staring down at the redhaired girl as he ran. "She's almost smaller than that Rukia-chick. Heh! That's probably why Kuchiki didn't ditch you right there." He snickered.
"Hn…?" Someone responded weakly. "Who's Kuchiki…?"
"Hm? You awake brat?" Kenpachi mused, noting that the girl's eyes were an even deeper shade of red than her hair. What little he could see of them anyway as they were only half-open and glazed over.
"What's happening…? Who… are you…?"
"An ally. At least for the moment anyway." He grinned sinisterly. "What's your name brat?"
"Lnh…" she mumbled, struggling to stay conscious.
"What?"
"Lina… It's Lina Inverse." And with that, the girl's world turned black.
END CHAPTER 1
Preview:
Kyouraku: By the way Jyuushiro.
Ukitake: Hm? What is it?
Kyouraku: This warrior, doesn't he/she have some spesific name or title? The "legendary warrior" sounds so vague if you ask me.
Ukitake: Ah, about that. I'm not to sure on the details, but it seems that the warrior had several.
Kyouraku: Such as?
Ukitake: Well... There's the "Bandit-killer", the "Dragon-spooker", the "enemy of all who live" and so on. There's so many.
Kyouraku: ... sweatdrop So basicly they shortened it to just the "legendary warrior" to avoid confusion?
Ukitake: That would seem to be the case, yes.
Lina: Shut up! What does that have to do with anything? Do the preview properly already!
Byakuya: You have no time left.
Lina: WHAT?!!
Shinigami's Cup. Golden!
"So you see," Urahara began as the captains prepared to enter Hueco Mondo. "In order to find the monument you must first turn left at the sand-dune, right at the barren tree and then you will follow the second path for three days in the directon of where the sun rise. If you have any trouble then consult the map I made you. Good luck gentlemen." he smiled.
Later as the generals stood looking over the barren desert cast in eternal night, they rolled out the map and studied it. What they found was a mostly blank sheet with a mark saying "You are here." followed by a straight line down the map which went to another mark, saying "You need to get here."
The captains looked blankly at the "map" for a few seconds until Byakuya raised his head and spoke.
"What a truly infuriating man."
They stood there in silence as a gust of wind blew by.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I intend to change that.
At the very least though, I do not own Bleach or Slayers.