Reinforcements

Hitsugaya Toushiro and Baraggan faced each other in silence, neither preferring to talk at the moment. They had clashed in silence a few times, with no wounds to either. Each was testing the other's abilities, but it was time to take things up a level.

"Sit upon the frozen heavens, Hyourinmaru!" Hitsugaya Toushiro called out as he slashed downwards in his opponent's direction. His sword reshaped into its Shikai, extending slightly in length and gaining a chain on the hilt not unlike Tensa Zangetsu's, but smaller. On the end of the chain was a small crescent several inches long.

As the taicho slashed at his foe, a stream of ice shaped as a Chinese dragon lunged out at high speed, attempting to hit Baraggan. Just as it was about to strike, the dragon slowed for no apparent reason, giving the Espada a chance to move out of the way. "It's useless," he told the Shinigami taicho. "You will never hit me with an attack of that speed."

Hitsugaya narrowed his eyes. He's slowing down the attacks before he can be hit, I know he is! But how? And how do I get around it? An idea struck him. Perhaps if he doesn't see it coming… Easier said than done; Baraggan appeared to be the strongest of the Espada, if the way he immediately took charge was any indication. Once again, he flung a dragon-headed serpent of ice and water at the Espada, who once again dodged easily, only to be forced to parry a physical blow from the diminutive taicho. Baraggan swiftly and easily retaliated with a bone-cracking punch, making Hitsugaya fly back several meters and attempt to recover. What Baraggan did not see was that the attack had spiraled and turned around, attempting to strike him in the back.

However, that attack too had slowed down moments before striking, allowing Baraggan to Sonido to the side, having felt the frigid air behind him. "A paltry attempt," the stout Arrancar declared. "Weak! Slow! Pitiful!"

"It's not that my attacks are slow, but that you somehow make them so," he countered coolly. "Is it simply a quality of your reiatsu, that anything that approaches you is slowed? Or is it a special technique of yours?"

Baraggan shook his head slowly. "What you do not understand yet is that all the Espada were not simply chosen for their strength, but also for embodying an aspect of death. Rage. Greed. Madness. Intoxication. Destruction. Despair. Nihilism. Sacrifice. Loneliness. And my own, Old Age. Each of these aspects is a cause of death, and Aizen thought it fitting that the Espada be their avatars. As the avatar of old age, the most powerful and inevitable causes of death, I have control over time itself. Nothing can touch me!"

Hitsugaya's mind went into overdrive as he attempted to think of a way around Baraggan's admittedly impressive and highly lethal ability. In an attempt to stall for time, he commented aloud, "It must be nice to control time… I think if I had that power, I would use it to age myself first. I've been in this child-like body for decades, and it makes me lose the respect I deserve, having earned this position of mine with sweat and blood."

The time lord laughed lowly, a horrifying sound. "An interesting prospect. Perhaps you would like me to do it for you?" Before the white-haired Shinigami could answer, Baraggan had Sonido-ed directly in front of him and laid a hand on his left shoulder.

Hitsugaya screamed as the bones in his shoulder grew larger, but far more brittle until they shattered from being unable to support their own weight. He vanished in as fast a Shunpo as he could. Fuck!

"Do you see now? Time follows the whims of no one but me. You wished to have an adult body to reflect the power and position you have, but you failed to anticipate that without the necessary nutrients and preparation, your bones would grow steadily weaker as you grow older!" Baraggan told his enemy calmly.

"Ola Azul!"

Baraggan was caught by surprise, but even so the attack predictably slowed down before it could hit him, giving the Espada a chance to dodge. "Harribel. What do you think you are doing?"

"What does it look like?" Harribel asked calmly. "I'm aiding the Shinigami."

Her simple statement caused the stocky, scarred Espada's face to contort in fury. "You betray me?"

"You were never my ruler, Baraggan," the female Arrancar retorted. "Aizen was, and I no longer serve him. You are not even the Primera Espada, but the Segunda!"

"That does not matter. I rule everything, for nothing can withstand the test of time," Baraggan uttered heavily, drawing his weapon, a massive double-sided battle-axe as large as he was. Where the two blades met was a slit eye. Despite its obvious weight, he wielded it easily with only his right hand. He lunged at the Espada Tres. "Die a traitor's death, Harribel!"

Harribel blocked with her own sword, reinforcing it with her own reiatsu, making the hollow inside once more become filled with the light of her power, similar to when she was using Ola Azul. Even so, her Zanpakuto buckled against Baraggan's sheer might.

Thankfully for her, Hitsugaya was not content to simply sit and watch. He had dashed at Baraggan's exposed back, sword at the ready as he conjured another ice dragon using the water from the atmosphere. He fired it from point-black range, only for Baraggan's time dilation to slow it just enough for him to disengage from Harribel and Sonido away. Luckily, Harribel also managed to evade.

Standing side by side with the Shinigami taicho, the Espada Tres glanced downward. "You manipulate ice?"

"Yeah. What can you do?" Hitsugaya shoved his questions about why the Arrancar was helping him into the back of his mind to ask later; he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"I manipulate water in my Resurreccion."

"… I think I have an idea."

Before Hitsugaya could explain his idea, Baraggan approached again. "I see I need to teach you both about time. Namely, that it is inevitable to die at the hands of it!" He held his Zanpakuto with both hands, holding it downward. "Rot, Arrogante!"

The eye in Baraggan's battle-axe opened widely and then erupted in dark flames that rushed over to the Espada. Hitsugaya watched with wide eyes as the blackened translucent fire burned away Baraggan's flesh, but the high-level Arrancar made no sound of pain, not even when his eyes melted. In mere moments, he had become nothing more than a skeleton. The Hollow mask had reshaped itself into full, highly decorated, extremely bejeweled crown. Then Baraggan's clothing, which had still been burning in the fires of his Zanpakuto, put itself out and revealed their new form: a black cloak with a fur collar darker than pitch. The slit-eye pendant from his Zanpakuto hovered before him for a moment before it spontaneously grew an elegant chain on either side, becoming a necklace. The scar over Baraggan's right eye also had transitioned over, manifesting as a crack over the right eye socket in the skull.

"You think you are Shinigami?" Baraggan asked, though for the life of him Hitsugaya couldn't see how he could speak with no vocal chords. "No, it is I who am the true Kami. All is equal before my judgment."

"Careful!" Harribel warned, motioning to where Baraggan stood; the building he stood on was crumbling and rotting away even as he spoke. "Do not get close to him, or you will die!"

"Then it's a good thing we're both elemental users," the ice-wielding Shinigami responded. "Bankai!" Ice erupted from his Zanpakuto, covering him momentarily before unveiling his Bankai form, complete with ice wings and a tail.

"Destroy, Tiburón!" With a flash, Harribel's coat disappeared, revealing her Hollow mask remnant that covered everything from her nose to the nipples on her breasts, just before a cocoon of water erupted around her. Moments later, she cut her way out of it. Now she wore a miniskirt made of bones, underneath which she had a black undergarment. Harribel also sported knee-high boots and elbow-length gloves, and the impressive mask she'd had earlier had changed dramatically, now forming as a thin, spine-like series of tiny bones going from her waist to the underside of her breasts. Her breasts were mostly uncovered, but the nipples were hidden by extensions from a collar that had formed around her neck.

However, Hitsugaya's attention was not on her body, but her sword, which had reshaped itself into what appeared to be an enormous, elongated shark tooth, with gill markings on each side. The hand guard itself completely covered her hand, making it nigh-impossible for Harribel to accidentally lose her weapon. An interesting, and very useful asset, he mused.

"Let's go!" With a single slash, the Shinigami taicho unleashed four ice dragons at Baraggan, who realized that he couldn't use his time dilation to make the ice disappear. But he did use it to slow down the dragons long enough to evade.

"Hmph! You presume to use water, knowing that I cannot rot something that is as eternal as I," Baraggan observed. "Fine then! Let's see if you can evade this." He opened his mouth. "Respira."

A black haze oozed from his open mouth and spread quickly. Too fast for me to evade, even with Shunpo! Hitsugaya realized, before he quickly used his wings and tail to form a cocoon of ice around himself, generating more to cover any weak spots. There was only one problem. I can't see the outside… how am I supposed to know when it's safe to come out? And what keeps him from attacking me while I'm in here?

Luckily for Hitsugaya, he wasn't alone, and Harribel had managed to escape the Respira. "La Gota!" she cried out, generating water from the gills of her weapon and firing a shark-tooth-shaped blade of water at the higher-level Espada. She fired several of them one after another, forcing Baraggan to give up his Respira in favor of dodging. Sensing the dark, deadly reiatsu of the Respira retreat, Hitsugaya came out of his icy shell and observed with a critical eye, to see when he could strike.

"Enough of this." Out of his cloak, a far more dangerous and wicked-looking battle-axe than the one Baraggan had originally wielded appeared. It was pitch black and had two pointed blades on either side of the metallic shaft. Grabbing it with his skeletal hand, he easily cleaved right through Harribel's attacks, rushing towards her and releasing his Respira technique again.

"Guncho Tsurara!" Hitsugaya cried, sweeping his Zanpakuto horizontally and releasing dozens of ice daggers at Baraggan, who once more had to evade. This, coincidentally, put the daggers straight on a flight path to Harribel.

"Hirviendo." The ice melted and flowed around her continuously in a circle. As the water-manipulating Arrancar raised her sword, the life-giving liquid she had used in her La Gota attacks also returned to her. "Cascada!"

All the water that Harribel had accumulated was sent as an ongoing blast of high-pressurized water at her opponent, whose time dilation was insufficient to keep the water from striking him. Instead, he blocked with his new axe. Her attack continued as she pumped reiatsu into her Zanpakuto to keep the gill markings generating more water, keeping them in a standstill. "Now, Shinigami!"

"Ryuusenka!" Hitsugaya Shunpo-ed as fast as he could at the time lord, stabbing him in the back with his sword. From the stab wound, ice erupted all around Baraggan, quickly encasing him. Thankfully, the cascading water that Harribel was continuing to fire provided plenty of material to freeze the Segunda Espada entirely.

As soon as the Espada was completely frozen over, Hitsugaya withdrew his sword and breathed a sigh of relief. However, when he saw the ice become clouded over and misty from the dark breath of Respira, he jumped back and readied his Zanpakuto once again.

The ice rapidly melted off the Espada as he continued to laugh. "You think to freeze me eternally? Perhaps that would have worked if we fought in a colder climate, but your ice was exposed to warm air! All it took was me aging the effects to break free!"

"Then perhaps I should introduce you to the frost of a glacier," Hitsugaya responded coldly. "Harribel, I appreciate your help to this point, but I highly suggest you maintain your distance. I didn't want to do this in Bankai, as I'm not sure I can control it fully yet." He raised his Zanpakuto the sky.

"Can't control what, you insolent fool?" Baraggan asked derisively.

"My Zanpakuto's greatest and most basic power. Tensou Jurin. All the water under the heavens is at my command."

Harribel looked up, seeing heavy, black clouds gathering overhead. Such power…! How can one so young wield this?

Suddenly the clouds opened up, and it began to snow heavily. "Snow?" the skeletal Arrancar asked disbelievingly. "This is your greatest power?" He didn't bother to utilize his time dilation, but this soon cost him. However, when just one of the snowflakes touched his hand, he saw a very large ice flower blossom. With a rush of realization, he activated his time dilation and attempted to dodge the snow.

Hitsugaya looked on coldly. None of the snowflakes touched him as he watched his opponent fruitlessly attempt to evade and only gain more ice flowers for his effort. "You should know, Espada, it is impossible to dance between every snowflake of my Hyouten Hyakkaso, just as it is impossible to evade all the droplets of rain in a storm."

Luckily for Harribel, her continued use of Hirviendo allowed her to melt the snowflakes before they could touch her, and with some focus she could redirect the water away from herself. She watched in astonishment as Baraggan screamed his fury as he was covered in a pillar of ice that just continued to grow as it snowed. The sudden drop in temperature that came with it also prevented him from using his Respira to break free as he had before.

"When the last of the petals fall… your life will be over," Hitsugaya told Baraggan quietly, turning away.

Just like that… just like that, he defeated one of the most feared Hollows ever known? Harribel asked herself. Baraggan had been known as the King of Hueco Mundo, commanding armies and conquering everything, before Aizen had appeared with his two Shinigami lackeys and turned him into an Arrancar. And now, suddenly a Shinigami taicho with the appearance of a child had taken him down! Not without injuries or assistance, of course, Harribel noted, viewing Hitsugaya's left shoulder and arm. And admittedly, the two of us were wielding water, one of the few things that Baraggan could not rot away with his time powers. So perhaps it was simply a poor match-up for him?

Even so, Harribel had to admit that the Shinigami was highly skilled. I hope never to fight him after he has fully matured and mastered his powers. "Can I ask your name, Shinigami?"

"It's Hitsugaya Toushiro, taicho of Squad 10. And yours, Arrancar?"

"Tia Harribel, Espada Tres. Or at least, I was before I defected from Aizen… You are quite powerful, Hitsugaya-taicho. I am glad I don't have to fight you."

Hitsugaya turned away. "I am glad of that as well. Defeating someone with similar powers to my own would cost me too much reiatsu and leave me unable to help defeat Aizen." He eyed the prison of fire that held the traitors to Soul Society warily. "Soon, this nightmare will be over…" he murmured under his breath, unaware that Harribel could hear every word. "… and then Momo can truly begin to heal."

"Well, that's unfortunate," Kyoraku Shunsui murmured, casually blocking Starrk's own halfhearted strike against him.

"What's that?" Starrk just as easily blocked Shunsui's counterstrike before lowering his sword in a sign of temporary truce.

The Shinigami taicho gestured towards their surroundings. "Look around you. Surely you can tell that we're the only ones fighting now."

Starrk sighed. "How troublesome. Are all Bankai as strong as the one that has entrapped Baraggan?"

Shunsui looked over where Starrk was indicating. He held no fear that he would be attacked – neither he nor Starrk had been fighting at anything remotely close to their full strength. Starrk had sent his Fraccion, Lilynette, to fight Ukitake Juushiro. Currently, Shunsui's best friend had somehow deprived the Arrancar of her Zanpakuto, a scimitar of some sort, and was very easily keeping her from it while refusing to fight someone who to all appearances seemed a child.

Seeing the pillar of ice that reached to the heavens, he smiled. "Bankai is a Shinigami's secret weapon, the pinnacle of a Zanpakuto's power. The stronger the Shinigami, the stronger the Bankai."

"Then is he stronger than you?"

The blunt question made Shunsui pause. "In a hundred years, he might be." He smiled again. "Toushiro is a very quick learner…"

"Then yours is stronger. I wish to see it." The lazy Arrancar eyed Shunsui seriously. "You are not even using the short sword at your hip. I suppose I have to earn seeing your release?"

"I'm afraid so. It's somewhat troublesome for me to simply release, and if you manage to force me, I'll explain why," the Shinigami offered.

Starrk sighed. "Lilynette, come!" he ordered.

"But Starrk, my sword!" the child Fraccion whined.

"Forget about it, just come back to me."

Lilynette gave the completely unharmed Ukitake-taicho a dirty look before reluctantly returning to Starrk's side. Ukitake took the opportunity to Shunpo to Shunsui's side, only to be caught off guard as his best friend tossed him the pink haori he typically wore. "Wha-?"

"I think he's finally ready to fight for real," Shunsui answered with a small smile.

Starrk looked at the pair of Shinigami seriously. "We are different from all the other Espada," he declared softly. "When they evolved from Hollow to Arrancar, they chose to seal their powers into their Zanpakuto, their weapons. However… my power is split between myself and Lilynette. Long ago, we were one. And now, to release our full power, we will become one once again." He placed a hand on Lilynette's shoulder, flaring his enormous reiatsu. "Kick About, Los Lobos."

Lilynette seemed to melt into Starrk's side, becoming reabsorbed by her other half. A swirl of reiatsu surrounded Starrk and kept him from being seen for a few moments, and when it dissipated, the Primera was kneeling on one knee. Part of Lilynette's mask, the part that had covered her left eye, had materialized on his face, which Shunsui had anticipated – the rejoining of their powers would naturally combine their masks to an extent.

What Shunsui was surprised about, however, was Starrk's new clothes and his weapons. The Primera now donned a grey, fur-lined jacket over a vest, in addition to skin-tight pants with fur from the ankles to the knees. Finally, Starrk didn't wield any kind of sword; instead, in each hand he held a stylized pistol.

A long-range fighter? Guess I don't have much choice… "You look pretty strong," Shunsui complimented. Shunsui brought his two swords against each other in a cross in front of him. "Flower Wind Rage and Flower God Roar, Heavenly Wind Rage and Heavenly Demon Sneer, Katen Kyokotsu."

Whirlwinds twisted around his hands and swords for a mere moment before the taicho's Zanpakuto revealed its new form: a pair of huge, highly-curved Chinese scimitars with long red tassels on the end. Shunsui held them angled upwards and away from his body from his sides, in a clear battle position.

Starrk looked at his opponent with a critical eye. "This… is not your Bankai. I went through the trouble of this pain-in-the-ass release, so show me your Bankai already."

"I have no intention of showing you my Bankai," the Shinigami replied easily. "If you want to see it, you'll have to force me to resort to it."

Starrk's expression changed to one of annoyance before he swung his right pistol up to shoulder level, and in that swift motion fired an extremely large Cero directly at Shunsui, seeming to engulf him. When the Cero's light faded, Shunsui was nowhere near.

Starrk wasn't fooled for even a moment, and spun around, blocking Shunsui's powerful melee attacks with his guns, reinforcing them with reiatsu to withstand the assault. "Such simple tricks won't decide this battle, Shinigami," Starrk told him calmly, seeming to teleport several feet away, almost faster than Shunsui could follow. "Vanishing with a high-speed technique to make it seem like I'd annihilated you, then capitalizing on the moment of weakness that would come with my relaxing my guard? You insult me. That one shot would not have killed you; you're too strong for that."

"Why, thank you," Shunsui accepted the compliment gracefully even as he readied himself for another long-range attack. "You're pretty strong yourself, and from the looks of it your speed is incredible. Your gun fires Ceros, right?"

"Right."

"Can it do anything else?"

"No."

The Shinigami taicho smiled thinly. "You're a poor liar."

Starrk gave an identical smile back. "So are you. You're holding back, I can tell even now. Surely you don't think that I would be fool enough to think that your release simply increases the size of your swords? What do I have to do to see your Bankai?"

"More than simply fire Ceros at me," Shunsui answered.

Meeting the mild rebuke with a frown, the Primera Espada once again raised his right pistol, but this time he spoke as he fired. "Cero Metralleta." Instead of one Cero, a dozen appeared simultaneously, all of them aimed right at Shunsui, who was taken by surprise.

"All Waves, Rise now and Become my Shield, Lightning, Strike now and Become my Blade, Sogyo no Kotowari!" Ukitake Juushiro jumped in front of the multiple blasts, his twin Zanpakuto – connected by a thin rope – held at the ready, and suddenly an enormous blast was headed straight at Starrk.

Starrk disappeared with a burst of Sonido, reappearing several meters outside the blast range. "How did you fire a Cero?" he demanded. "You are not Hollow or Arrancar."

"Who knows?" Juushiro replied blithely with a knowing smile. "Maybe if you do it again, you'll figure it out."

"Don't, it's a trap!" Starrk's pistol suddenly ringed out with the voice of Lilynette, surprising both Juushiro and Shunsui.

"Even if it is, I find myself… curious." And with that, Starrk fired another Cero at the white-haired Shinigami, only to once again have it coming right back at him instead. Frowning, he Sonido-ed away, much closer this time to his target. "Cero Metralleta."

This time, however, he was able to see what was truly happening. Dodging the latest reflected energy attack, he approached the chronically-sick Shinigami. "I see. You are not simply reflecting all my attacks back, but absorbing them into one of your Zanpakuto blades. Then the attack flows along the rope that connects them, and it is fired out of the other blade at a target of your choosing. The process is fast enough to merely appear as though my attacks cannot affect you."

Ukitake Juushiro was not a very easily surprised man. He had gone to the Shinigami Academy with his best friend, Kyoraku Shunsui, and after witnessing and even helping to cover up so many of the playboy's exploits, Juushiro had developed a resistance to surprise and now had a tendency to take everything in stride. The fact that his enemy had deduced his Zanpakuto's ability so quickly, so seemingly easily, however, was enough to make the snowy-haired taicho gape. "You figured it out, after only three attacks?"

"Yeah." Starrk sighed. "I'm glad you can't reflect any and all attacks, though. The fact that you have to absorb the attack first implies that you have a limit. I wonder if you can absorb a thousand shots at once."

"Starrk!"

The Arrancar froze in the action of raising his gun to test the theory. "… Nelliel? Is that you?"

Indeed, the well-endowed Arrancar was right in front of him. "Yep, it's me!"

"What are you doing here?"

"I've come to ask you to leave the living world, and Aizen. Look around! You're the only Arrancar left who is still alive and loyal to Aizen, but the Shinigami have barely even been injured!" Nelliel pointed out. "You did not grow this strong by being suicidal. Leave, and live another day."

Starrk grimaced; what she said made sense, but being able to work alongside others who did not die simply from being in his presence had been a blessed reprieve from the utter loneliness that he'd lived with for so long. How could he just leave?

"Hold on!" Lilynette's voice rang out. "I can still sense the others! Grimmjow and Harribel are still alive, at least! Are you telling us they defected?"

Nelliel's strong affirmative shocked both Starrk and his Fraccion-turned-weapon. "Why?" he asked, his voice catching as he felt anger and betrayal for the first time in recent memory.

"Grimmjow wasn't really loyal to begin with; he only wanted to get stronger to kill Aizen. Harribel lost her Fraccion because of Aizen. Please, Starrk, Lilynette, leave now before Aizen escapes his fiery prison!" Nelliel pleaded. "You were a wonderful friend to me before my accident, please don't make me lose you because you chose the wrong side!"

Silence reigned as Starrk struggled with a decision. Finally, he sighed. "I can't do that, Nelliel. Sorry, but I owe Aizen too much. Thanks to him, my time with the Espada fulfilled my greatest wish: companionship. Can you understand, Nelliel? Can you understand the unbearable loneliness you suffer when anyone who approaches you dies because you are so terribly strong that your reiatsu suffocates them, crushes them over time? Lilynette and I split our very soul to lessen our loneliness, but Aizen allowed me to escape that fate. I owe him my loyalty."

"But he's just using you!" Nelliel exclaimed, knowing even as she did that the Primera's mind was set.

"I know. I'm sorry, Nelliel, that it had to come to this." He raised his left pistol at her head. "Please leave before I am forced to take your life. Please… for my sake if not for your own."

Tears trailed down her cheeks as the former Tercera Espada drew her beloved sword on one of her dearest friends. "Shinigami… If I fight with you, will you promise not to kill him if at all possible? Just incapacitate him and let me escape with him to Hueco Mundo, I beg you!"

Shunsui and Juushiro looked at each other. In that single glance, a whole conversation was had, courtesy of their centuries-long friendship. Finally, the laid-back Kyoraku shrugged nonchalantly, though inside he was taken aback at just how Shinigami-like the pair of Espada were. The desire of companionship, loyalty over personal wants, sorrow over the possible death of a friend, willingness to work with Shinigami for a greater good? Those aren't Hollow traits. "Eh, why not? But we might have some trouble with that…"

Nelliel Sonido-ed to his side, her throat feeling as though someone were choking her as she gathered her reiatsu to fight. "Then I will fight him with you. Declare, Gamuza."

Smoke emanated from her Zanpakuto before quickly engulfing her. Mere moments later, the smoke cleared and Nelliel's new form was revealed. Her hips down had reshaped into a light brown horse's body, giving her the appearance of a centaur, complete with a black tail. Her mask remnant had changed little, the horns extending and curving more, framing her face. Nelliel's shoulders, elbows and hands had gained a white armor of sorts, and the skin between them was covered in black material. In her right hand, she wielded a double-ended lance. All in all, Shunsui realized that their new ally resembled nothing more than a centaur knight.

"Please, Nelliel… don't do this," Starrk pleaded, his face twisted in reluctance and sorrow.

"If you won't leave Aizen willingly, I have no choice," she whispered quietly.

The Primera sighed, regretting once again being so strong. If only I were weak… "I don't want to kill you. Please be careful, Nelliel, and don't die." Bringing up both guns, he fired twin Cero Metralletas at Shunsui. Both of the target's partners jumped in front of him once more, Juushiro quickly absorbing as much as he could before seeing how Nelliel was holding up. To his utter surprise, she had simply opened her mouth and seemed to eat the dozens of Ceros!

Sogyo no Kotowari got his attention with a mental poke, reminding its wielder that it couldn't hold onto the attack forever. With a silent acknowledgment, he fired it right back at Starrk, only to be surprised once more as Nelliel appeared to have done the same, sending back the Ceros she had eaten, and layering her own Cero on top of it!

Starrk had no choice but to get out of the way, surprised for only a moment. "I should've known… I forgot you had that Cero Doble ability, your special ability."

"How could you forget it? It's the only reason we were even close to the same level in our occasional spars," the former Tercera reminded him with a hint of a teasing tone in her voice.

Catching it, Starrk smiled in fond memory. "You surprised me the first time you used it, you know. I never thought someone could absorb someone else's Cero and use it against them, and now I'm fighting two people who can do it." He eyed Shunsui. "No chance of you doing that as well?"

"Not so far as I'm aware, but you never know," the Shinigami replied glibly.

It was then that the distinct sound of the sky ripping open caught all the fighters' attention. A small blond boy in an Arrancar outfit stepped out, followed by an enormous grey Hollow of some sort, taller than the tallest Menos Grande. Shunsui's eyes widened when he noticed that the beast had Gillian masks for nails on its enormous feet. It was Starrk who spoke first, however. "Wonderweiss… It seems that Aizen tires of this battle."

As if to mark his words, the boy, Wonderweiss, gave what sounded like a bestial cry, and the monstrous Hollow let out a mighty blast of wind that blew away the fiery prison that held Aizen, Tousen, and Gin. Wonderweiss then turned towards the ice tower that held Baraggan, and screamed louder, creating a sonic shockwave that shattered the ice, releasing the Segunda Espada.

Ichigo, who had been watching with Yamamoto and the remaining Shinigami taicho as he rested to recover his reiatsu, felt a sudden wave of despair that almost made him think that Ulquiorra was in the area in this Resurreccion: Segunda Etapa again. He looked at the knowing smile on Aizen's face, the one that seemed to say, "Come then, let me show you how futile all your efforts are," and Ichigo scowled. "No chance of your entrapping him again?" he muttered to Yamamoto.

"There is no longer any point. His forces have all but been annihilated, between the deaths and the ones that turned traitor," Yamamoto rumbled. "Hitsugaya-taicho, finish the job with the Arrancar that was just freed. Komamura-taicho, I believe you wished to confront the traitor Tousen. Soifon-taicho, hang back and look for an opportunity to end this war. Kurosaki, you are to-"

He was cut off by the call of a new voice. "Ya have no authority over him or us, Yamamoto-soutaicho!"

Ichigo turned around and smirked before Shunpo-ing next to the newcomer. "You made it. I almost thought you weren't coming to the party."

Hirako Shinji snorted, gesturing behind him to the other Vizard. "What, and miss out on all the fun?"

Ichigo gave an amused sound before turning around to see the reaction of the Shinigami taicho. "Hirako Shinji?" Yamamoto breathed, eyes wide for once in his life. Soifon appeared to recognize them, but Hitsugaya looked more bewildered.

"So you were hiding in the human world after all…"

The leader of the Vizard ignored the commander of the Shinigami, instead choosing to address the other Shinigami-Hollow hybrids. "It's been a while since we've seen 'em. Anyone wanna say hello to anyone in the Gotei 13?"

"Nope!" Hiyori said dismissively.

"I'm fine," Love put in quietly.

Rose nodded in Love's direction. "Me too."

"There is no one in the Gotei 13 that I'd like to greet," was the input from the neutral-sounding Hachi

"Me neither," Kensei agreed with a bit of a bitter tone.

"Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii Berry-tan!" Mashiro yelled happily, making Ichigo palm his face. Of all the things she could have said…

Lisa, however, was silent and vanished in a flicker of Shunpo. With a shrug, Shinji turned his attention back to the leader of the Gotei 13 and flickered over to him.

"Have you come to settle your grudge?" Yamamoto asked wearily, but sternly.

"With Aizen, yes. We don't really have anything against you, aside from fighting behind such a stupidly strong barrier that we couldn't get in earlier!" Shinji thumbed a finger at a Shinigami who, on cue, appeared in a kneeling position before Yamamoto. "If it wasn't for him, we'd still be outside trying to find a weak point."

"I apologize, soutaicho."

"Very well… Hirako Shinji. Can we think of you all as allies?"

Shinji fixed him with the most serious look Ichigo had ever seen adorn his face. "The answer to that is obvious." Waiting a beat to let that message sink in, he finished with, "Absolutely not. We're not your allies. Ya banished and tried to kill us, remember? We're not on your side. We're against Aizen. That… and allies of Ichigo." With that, he vanished again into Shunpo, returning to his friends.

Yamamoto silently seethed with frustration. Kurosaki Ichigo AGAIN? How in all the worlds is he gaining so many allies, all powerful enough to pose a threat to Soul Society? Is he trying to build an army?

"You done talking?" Love asked as Shinji reappeared next to them.

"Nah, but the time for talk is over. Besides, the enemy won't wait any longer."

Indeed, Wonderweiss took a deep breath, and began to scream again. In response, as though following orders, Fura opened a gargantuan, toothless mouth, and began to vomit a black substance, which quickly separated upon contact with the ground and then reformed into dozens of Gillian.

The people who were guarding the four pillars – Ishida, Kira, Matsumoto, and Hisagi, as Rukia, Renji, Yumichika and Ikkaku were all in various stages of being healed by Inoue in Urahara's shop – all looked on in horror and awe as a veritable Gillian army materialized before them. "How… how are we to fight all those?" Similar thoughts were had by the taicho, but they were grimly determined.

However, the Vizard were more than ready. "… Let's go," Shinji said softly. Every single one of the former Shinigami reached for their face as one, and together they ripped their masks into existence, flaring their reiatsu as high as they could go.

Behind his Gillian mask, even as he leapt into battle with Tensa Zangetsu in hand, Ichigo couldn't help but think, It's gonna be a bitch to go back to school after all this. Too bad this ain't a paying job, or I'd be making a killing.

It was only a little worrying when Cazador de la Luna began laughing his ass off inside Ichigo's head.