Author's End Note:

Ok, it's been a looong time guys...

Bleach, I loved it, for a while. These days, I'm ashamed to admit, I haven't even finished reading the all the manga.

But if anyone still remembers this fic, has been hanging out for this fic to be finished, I sincerely apologise. I truly did want to finish this one day, but I've really had to face facts. Between other interests, life, various dramas and trying to write my own original stories, I really don't have time to come back to this.

If there are any readers who wanted to know what was going to happen/how it was going to end, please PM, I do still remember.

From here on out, this fic will be left as Incomplete. *hangs head in shame*

A/N2: I like to use Japanese terms, I always have the translations at the bottom of the page.

Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever, own Bleach or any of its ideas or characters.

The Ryuukin

CHAPTER ONE

Ukitake Jyuushiro fought to stay conscious as he watched the scene above him play out.

Shunsui had managed to kill Starrk. Soi Fon and a man he believed was once the fukutaicho of the Kidou Corps had successfully dispatched Espada number 2. And the traitor Aizen had killed the third Espada himself.

He felt himself fading as someone cloaking their reiatsu stepped up beside his defenseless and bleeding body and crouched down.

He squinted, trying to make out the face hidden in the hooded shadows of the golden haori.

Cool fingertips rested against his cheek with a butterfly light touch.

"Hang in there for me Aki," whispered a husky voice he hadn't heard in quite some time. "I'm going to take you to safety. Help will be arriving for the Gotei 13 shortly. But I need you to hang in there, alright?"

Jyuushiro smiled faintly and a single word passed through his lips as he fell into dark oblivion.

"Kimi…"

Kyouraku Shunsui tensed suddenly and turned his attention away from the three traitors when he felt his closest friend's reiatsu completely disappear.

Up until now, he had known that Jyuushiro was still alive thanks to the weak pulse of his reiatsu.

Shunsui scanned the ground below him, searching for his friend's body.

He spotted the glint of a lone katana and used shunpo steps to go and retrieve it.

It was definitely Sougyo no Kotowari, Jyuushiro's zanpakutou.

He took a moment to sigh in relief.

The zanpakutou still held a reiatsu, which meant Jyuushiro was alive.

Storing the katana beside his own sheathed zanpakutou, Shunsui made his way to stand slightly behind Yamamoto Soutaicho.

"Be on your guard Shunsui," Yamamoto told him. "It appears help will be arriving for us shortly."

"Who is there left to help?" Shunsui wondered in his usual lazy drawl, hiding away his doubts.

"I am amazed you did not sense the presence of the one who extracted Jyuushiro. But then perhaps she was careful about who she allowed to sense her. She has grown stronger."

Shunsui was about to see if he could feel any residual traces of the reiatsu when a group of five people cloaked in gold haori materialized between them and the traitors.

There were two women and three men in the group and each of them wore their hair in samurai ponytails, the ends of their hair meticulously beaded in painted white ceramic beads.

They also wore white half masks which could easily have been mistaken for broken Hollow masks except for the beautiful patterns that decorated them.

One man had a black dragon circling around his right eye. Another had silver thunder clouds shadowing his forehead. The third man had the black wings of a Hell Butterfly spreading from above his nose and over his eyes.

One of the women had red flames dancing around her eyes.

The final woman, Shunsui finally noticed, had her hair completely beaded in silver with her hair tie and headband an emerald green. Her mask had pink sakura blossoms flowering on their branches from the tip of her left eye, while orange Japanese maple leaves fluttered around her right eye.

A feeling of familiarity swept over Shunsui.

'Itcan'tbeher,' he thought to himself as he watched the man who was apparently the leader step forward from the group.

"Aizen Sosuke, Ichimaru Gin, Tousen Kaname. By order of the Spirit King and the Ryuukin, we hereby place you under arrest for crimes committed against the Gotei 13 and Seireitei, as well as for acts of treason intended for the royal family. A formal trial will be held. Come quietly and your sentence may be lessened."

Aizen reached for his katana and the five in golden haori moved faster than Shunsui realized was possible as they unsheathed their own katanas.