Breaking Through the Storm [Toshiro Hitsugaya] Ch 23

Short recap: There's no way to make this a short recap. If you can't remember you'll just have to reread the past few chapters.

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"Mai, Sode no Shirayuki." Rukia's zanpakuto transformed into it's white shikai. After staring at each other for a couple seconds, she and Aaroniero began to clash blades. His attacks were much stronger than hers and more difficult to block. Rukia swung her zanpakuto at "Kaien," but again and again she failed to land a successful hit. He knocked her down as she tried to shunpo away, and he stuck his zanpakuto in the floor right next to her. Rukia rolled away, and Aaroniero kept trying to stab her every time she moved. He laughed at her.

Clash, attack, dodge. These same sort of sequences kept up for quite awhile. Rukia was very angry and no doubt, fighting rashly. Once he disappeared into the fog of the fight. She looked around for him, and the next thing she knew a sword was pointed in her direction not far off. Using sonido, Aaroniero attacked her from the side. She blocked just in time but was forced to the ground. Her zanpakuto was broken.

"Mai, Sode no Shirayuki," Rukia commanded. Her zanpakuto restored itself. "Some no mai, tsukishiro!" Ice shot up in a circle around her. It would have consumed Aaroniero, but he jumped away from it.

"What's the matter, Kuchiki? Is that all you got?" he taunted. "Did you really think those techniques would work on me? I'm the one who helped you when you created them!" She felt Chad and Uryu's reiatsu rise.

"Your friends will die soon. They're against Privaron Espada, the fallen Espada," he said. Rukia looked sort of relieved. "Don't be relieved yet. They used to be Espada. One of your friends defeated one earlier, but not without damage."

'Ichigo!'

"There's nothing you can do, Kuchiki." He laughed.

"Tsuki no mai, Hakuren!" Rukia touched the floor with the tip of Sode no Shirayuki and ice formed in its path. Aaroniero merely jumped out of its path, but Rukia unexpectedly brought her zanpakuto on him. He instantly blocked it.

"Don't you get it? Or is this the depth of your powers?" Rukia glared at him. "Fine. Surge the seas and the heavens, Nejibana." [1] His zanpakuto turned into a trident with a blue cloth and a screw-like bottom. "It's over, Kuchiki!" He turned around full circle and water spiraled around him. The Arrancar brought his trident down on Rukia's zanpakuto hard. She struggled to block his attack, but he broke through her defensive position. She jumped out of the way, breathing hard.

'All of his techniques, his posture. This man is exactly like Kaien-dono. I don't want to believe it, but this man really is! But not the Kaien-dono I remember.' Aaroniero thrust Nejibana at Rukia, but she dodged it. Water followed everywhere his sword went. As she was thinking about how the old Kaien was, the "new Kaien" pried her zanpakuto right out of her arms and stabbed her leg, leaving a big gash.

"It's almost over." He pointed his zanpakuto at her again, but as he did Rukia stuck her palm out.

"Hado 33, soukatsui!" A bolt of white lightning fired from her hand, missing Aaroniero and hitting the wall behind him.

"You really think you can-" Before he could finish a chunk of the wall fell out, and light filled the space that he and Rukia were standing. He quickly jumped up away from the light. She picked up her zanpakuto again. As they clashed swords she thought back to when Aaroniero first encountered her. He was wearing that mask, and he said he didn't want to be in the sunlight. While Rukia was deep in thought, Aaroniero took the chance to stab her side. She winced as she stuck her palms out again.

"Bakudo 4, hainawa!" A steam of yellow light shot up and wrapped around the Arrancar.

"What are you doing, Kuchiki?!" Rukia started to say an incantation. "A two layer incantation?"

"Bakudo 61, rikujou kourou!" The yellow light turned into strips surrounding his waist. He rendered unable to move. "Hado 73, souren soukatsui!" An even bigger bolt of blue lightning hit not only him, but also the wall behind him, causing a great amount of wall to fall out. He screamed as his face began to melt away. Blood spouted from the fatal wound in his chest.

"Rikujou kourou, eh? The current captains consider that to be Kuchiki Byakuya's specialty." The face that was Shiba Kaien's was no longer. In place of it was two skulls with the number nine on them sitting in a tank with red water on top of the Espada's shoulders. The wound in his chest bled profusely. "A two layer incantation. Rikujou kourou souren soukatsui. It wasn't in our memories that you could use such skills," the upper skull choked out.

"W-who are you?" she said.

"I've already said. Aaroniero Arleri, 9th Espada," the upper one said.

"And don't say anything about our faces. We get enough of that already," the lower skull said. Rukia narrowed her eyes at the Espada.

"Some no mai, tsukishiro!" A circle of ice shot up around him, encasing him in it. The ice shattered and so did Aaroniero. "That's for impersonating Kaien-dono." She fell to the ground and everything went black. Blood poured from the wound on Rukia's side and her leg.

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Uryu and Pesche were having quite the time with Cirucci. She threw her zanpakuto at them as they weaved around the pillars.

"Why are you still here?! Weren't you looking for Nel? You should get away from here and go look for her!" Uryu said while they ran.

"But I can help! Just give me a chance, Uryu!" the lanky Hollow said.

"No way! You won't stand a chance!"

"What are you two babbling about?!" Cirucci nearly took off Uryu's head with her zanpakuto.

"Crap! She caught up to us!" he said to himself. He formed his bow, but Pesche pushed him out of the way.

"Leave her to me, Uryu!"

"Leave her to you?! You don't stand a chance against her!" Pesche gave him a shaky thumbs up.

"It'll be ok. I have a special power."

"A special power?"

"I can excrete a special fluid that makes everything it touches become super-slippery," he said proudly.

"That's worthless! It won't do anything!"

"Just shut up and watch!" Pesche spit a greenish fluid on her zanpakuto as it was sent flying toward him.

"Move! Pesche Gautiche!" Uryu warned him. But Pesche did not move. The yoyo hit his shoulder, but instead of making a cut, it bounced off his shoulder. Cirucci gasped and Pesche laughed.

"How was that? Your little yoyo's not so tough! And also, I don't wanna see your panties anymore!" he said. The Arrancar squealed and crossed her legs.

"You peeked?!" she said.

"Well, I haven't seen them yet... I couldn't really get a good view. But, anyway, I don't wanna see them!" Uryu gave him a blank stare. "Why are you looking at me like that?! I didn't peek!"

"I've had enough of you jerks making a fool out of me!" She threw the yoyo at them and they dodged just in time.

"Looks like you haven't had enough of my special move yet!" Pesche said.

"That slime won't touch me again!" she said. Her zanpakuto winded around the pillars toward Pesche, but Uryu grabbed his wrist and pulled him out of the way just in time.

"What do you think you're doing?!" he whispered harshly.

"Uryu, thanks for saving me! I must repay your kindness!"

"Just stop acting so rashly!" he scolded him.

"I must defeat her!"

"Oh, what's this? You're gonna shoot out some more of that weird stuff?" Cirucci taunted. Pesche spit out more of the liquid. "Ha! You really think I'm going to let you hit me again? You're so stupid!" Just as she finished saying that, the liquid splashed up like a tidal wave and covered every pillar top around her. She landed on one and instantly slipped, falling face first to the ground.

"Sucker! Serves you right! I can fire off that liquid indefinitely!" he laughed. "I call it Infinite Slick!"

"It's kind of sad that the name is kind of cool..." Uryu said. "Quit laughing! You have a chance to escape! A trick like that only works once!" A vein throbbed on Cirucci's forehead. She stood up.

"Tear off, Golondrina!" She grew steel wings with blades on them. Her arms turned pure white and grew long and skinny. On each of her shoulders were yoyo like things. On the top of her head was a beak-like thing with feathers trailing down her back.

"Who do I slice up first?" she said. Cirucci's steel wings sliced off the tops of the pillars, sending them crashing down to the floor. Pesche and Uryu dodged as many pillars as possible. "Hahahahaha! I'm just getting started!" She kept cutting the tops of pillars, and the other two ran. Every once in awhile Uryu would turn and fire arrows at her.

"I'm going to flatten you two either way, so quit trying to escape!" Uryu fired more arrows at her, this time at her wings.

'Just as I thought. Her wings are vibrating at an extremely high frequency,' he thought.

"That won't work on me!" Cirucci said. She crashed her wings down again, and Uryu jumped. "Where'd you go, four eyes?" He fired more arrows at her again.

"What are you doing, Uryu?!" Pesche said.

"What are you still doing here?! Didn't I tell you to leave?! Get out of my way."

"No, I'll fight with you!"

"Since you're such close friends, I'll slice up the two of you together!" the Arrancar said. Her wings continued chopping the pillars in half.

'I've got to do something about those wings... That's it!' Uryu thought. "Pesche, use Infinite Slick!"

"Infinite... what?" He looked dumbfounded.

"Infinite Slick! That weird liquid you used earlier! That's even the name you gave it!" A vein throbbed on Uryu's forehead.

"Don't call it weird! That's rude!"

"Just use it, you dumbass!"

"So you admit you can't do a thing without me," Pesche chuckled. "Watch this!" He lifted his chin up again as to spit out some more of the strange fluid, but nothing came out. "I guess I used it all up..."

"What do you mean 'used it all up'?! You said you could use it indefinitely!"

"Well-"

"It was a lie?!"

"Not really a lie... It just carries an image of being able to be shot out indefinitely."

"You lied! Why would you do that?!"

"There's a such thing as getting caught up in the moment!" As Pesche ran away, he slipped in some of his leftover Infinite Slick.

"What are you doing now!? You're really pissing me off!"

"And you're pissing me off!" Cirucci interrupted. "Die!" She shot a few of the blades on her wings at him.

'What now?!' Uryu thought.

xXxXx

"Bankai!" Toshiro said. His ice tail and wings began to take shape, and three purple flowers appeared above his head. "Daiguren Hyorinmaru!" Kira put her right arm out in front of her as if to defend herself.

'She honestly thinks she can fight him with just her puppet ability?' Sayuri thought. The silver strip along the inside of her arm flung out only to reveal a sword. Sayuri grimaced. 'Ugh... Who wants a piece of metal stuck in their arm?'

Toshiro and Kira clashed blades. For just a fracción she held up a good fight, but Toshiro still overpowered her. He pressed his zanpakuto harder onto hers so that it was in her face. The temperature in the room dropped a little.

She pushed his blade away from her face. "Strike from the heavens, Maneshi!" [2] The blade of her sword widened a bit, and it transformed so that she was holding its hilt in her hands rather than the sword projecting from her arm. A ribbon hung from the end of the hilt. Both Toshiro and Sayuri's eyes widened in shock.

'She has two resurreccións?' Toshiro thought.

"That's- that's my..." Sayuri started.

"Your shikai? Not quite," Kira said. Sure enough there was a noticeable difference between the two releases. Kira's had a purple hilt and lavender ribbon with a dark purple reiatsu surrounding the blade. Rai-Joshin had a black and gold hilt with a white ribbon, and Sayuri's reiatsu was a golden color.

"So what do you think, little captain? After I used the girl for a puppet I was able to gain some of her abilities."

He scowled at her. The two clashed swords again, Kira's sparking a purple color against Toshiro's. They jumped back on opposite sides of the room before they rushed toward each other again.

"Shockwave!" A purple shockwave much like the one Sayuri sent at him earlier flew in his direction. Without Sayuri's reiatsu it wasn't as strong. He easily cut through it. "Fine. If you're going to be like that... Magnetize!" Kira commanded. Hyorinmaru dropped to the ground. Luckily Toshiro wasn't completely knocked to the ground. He stuck his left palm out at her.

"Hado 33, soukatsui!" A bolt of white lightning struck her side as they were only three feet away from each other. Kira flew back into a wall and coughed up some blood. He leapt up into the air and flew at her. He swung his zanpakuto down and his ice dragon crashed down on the female Arrancar. She let out a scream as it brutally smashed her into the ground. The two Shinigami looked at the hole in the ground. Sure enough they saw an unconscious and heavily wounded Kira. Toshiro sheathed Hyorinmaru and returned back to his normal form.

"We should get out of here before someone else finds us," he said. Sayuri scrambled to her feet. She felt a sting from her shihakusho rubbing against the cut in her leg. Then she looked at Toshiro, who stumbled a bit. His wounds that she gave him earlier still bled. Sayuri rushed to his side and put his arm around her shoulder to steady him.

"You ok?" She looked at him with a worried face.

"I'm fine. Let's just get out of here." With the support of each other, they exited through a door at the opposite side of the room that they entered.

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1. Nejibana means twisted flower. I'm not so sure of his zanpakuto command because the Bleach Wiki says different than what Dattebayo translated.

2. Maneshi literally means copy cat.