From Dusk...To Dawn - Sequel to 'Into the Sweet Darkness'

Chapter 14 - Protected

Ichigo pov:

Damn it! Damn it! DAMN IT!

This was bad. This was really bad. Now we didn't have just Juha Bach to take care of but Aizen's reiatsu had suddenly popped up as well. And his reiatsu....it was monstrous! I had never felt such a high reiatsu.Aizen's reiatsu was probably a notch higher than even Juha's level.

What was he doing here now? What was he planning to do?!

"Ichigo..." Sado called and I cursed under my breath again. A few moments passed and I sensed Aizen appear in the same place as Juha Bach. It wasn't soon after that there were major fluctuations in their reiatsus. In fact, it was so high that all of us had to stop moving because we fell on our knees suffocated by of the intensity. Their fighting was so violent that even though we were still meters away, the ground shook at the massive impact.

We were swearing and panting even at this distance and just imagining how overwhelming their reiatsus were if we were in the same room as them made all of our hopes waver. With this kind of power, was it even practical to think about being able to beat them? Maybe if there was just Juha Bach, we might have been able to somehow beat him...barely hanging by a thread to life at the end. But Aizen....he was even stronger than Juha Bach. What were we going to do about him?

Thinking so, my pace of running slowed and I finally came to a stop. I was staring ahead at where they were, my will to fight pretty much crushed now.

"Kurosaki kun?" Inoue called out to me hesitantly. "Ichigo! why did you stop?!" This time Yoroichi san yelled slightly angry. "Na, Yoroichi san....should we just give up?" I asked in a low voice. I was rewarded with a rather hard punch on my head. I turned to Yoroichi san glaring and rubbing the sore bump. "What the hell was that for?!" "What do you think it was for, idiot?!" She yelled back at me and I looked away not finding an answer to neither her question nor our position in this battle.

"You feel it too, don't you? Aizen and Juha Bach....with two opponents....Aizen being even stronger than Juha Bach, how can we win?" "Kurosaki kun...." There was a dense silence at the obvious fact that I had stated. But we all stiffened, looking back at the so called castle when we sensed another reiatsu. It wasn't just any reiatsu....it was Sana's.

My eyes went wide sensing her in the same place as our enemies. Her reiatsu was unbelievably high too....it was crazy! Even with her reiatsu being sealed, it had increased to such an extent?! It was almost as strong as Aizen's! How was this possible?! Why was she there with them in the first place?!

"Sana, huh? It looks like she's become a traitor again." "She's not a traitor!!" I yelled refusing to accept what Yoroichi san said. But she looked at me with a hard stare. "She's with them, Ichigo. She helped Aizen willingly, remember? And now she's in the same place as him....how can you be sure that she's not helping him again?" I stiffened at her question. She was somewhat right....Sana loved Aizen and we knew that he cared for her too....what would we do if she was helping him again?

But we all perked up when there was a light that shot out from the castle. It was like a sphere or reiastu circulating at the very top. A few seconds later, it split and shot out in various directions, including ours. "Darn it!" Yoroichi san cursed but I didn't seem to get any bad vibe from the reiastu that was coming right at us. This reiatsu was Sana's....and I trusted her. I trusted that she wouldn't hurt us. She may have helped Aizen, she may have loved him....even if she still did now, she wouldn't hurt her friends. I trusted her with that much.

Yoroichi san told everyone to retreat, but I stayed still. The reiatsu reached me and Inoue screamed worried. But the reiatsu just spread around me creating a coating on my entire body and swords. I lifted my hand to see the layer of golden reiatsu on me. I turned behind to see everyone else too covered in this reiatsu.