Become A Ghost

Become A Ghost, Chapter Twenty-Five

Byakuya was not too surprised when a burst of Sonido resulted in very nearly losing his head to a vicious swipe from a blue-haired Espada with a grin that put him in mind of that which usually graced the unlovely visage of one Zaraki Kenpachi. It was only due to his excellent parrying skills and, he had to admit, superb reflexes that he was able to avoid such an ignominius fate.

It appeared that this Espada had suppressed his reiatsu, counting on that 'silence' and then exceptional speed to deliver a surprise attack. Byakuya should have expected such an eventuality, except that he had suffered a most unwelcome shock almost 20 minutes earlier: that of Orihime's reiatsu flaring into existence. Somehow, she'd ignored any scrap of self-preservation she might have had, and any dribble of common sense that might have beaten its way into her skull over the course of her lifetime, to find her way through the dimensional divide from Soul Society to Hueco Mundo.

He had been aware, of course, of the advent of his own lieutenant and Kurosaki Ichigo, neither of whom were unexpected. If anyone were to follow him to Hueco Mundo to ensure his safe return, it would be those two dunderheads. He was not unduly surprised by the presence of Hirako Shinji and Hinamori Momo, either, because if anyone were to want a resolution to the myriad grudges held again Aizen Sousuke, it was they. Iba Tetsuzaimon's involvement, however, puzzled him. He settled on commending the man for his attention to duty and left it at that.

Byakuya had altered his course to angle both away from the pursuing Arrancar-- possibly Espada-- that followed in his wake, and toward the newly arrived group, thinking that if he were to join his efforts to theirs, the odds of his survival in the event of a battle rose exponentially. He had even thought he'd make it, but when Orihime arrived, he had had to battle with so many conflicting emotions-- irritation, confusion, amazement, gratitude, pleasure, anger-- that he'd lost focus, just for a bit, but clearly enough to provide an opening to any hopeful attackers. 

And then a maniacal grin with sword attached had exploded into existence right in his face, and now Byakuya was in the throes of an admittedly quite exhilarating fight. His opponent had little finesse but endless enthusiasm, and kept shouting compliments at Byakuya for being able to withstand him so skillfully. If Byakuya were a man given to laughter, he'd be hard-pressed to keep from it, because the entire situation was just plain weird. 

His opponent was brutally strong, and almost miraculously fast. He preferred to fight hand-to-hand in close combat, forcing Byakuya to abandon any hopes of using Senbonzakura's millions of blades in his usual way-- even with directing them with his hands, they were still too slow. After tossing away his sword in bankai-- to the delighted hoot of his foe, who rushed toward him-- Byakuya activated his Senkei technique, encircling them within the rows and rows of glowing swords before calling one of them to his hand for some good old-fashioned zanjutsu.

Thus commenced what he had heard Renji refer to before as a 'slobberknocker', with lightning-fast rushes and bone-jarring clashes. Neither of them seemed able to gain the upper hand against the other, which seemed to thrill the lunatic Byakuya was fighting almost beyond endurance. At one point, he sensed the arrival of another, even stronger Espada, as well as a few dozen weaker Arrancar and Gillian, all of whom lined up around the exterior perimeter of Senkei to observe but did not interfere. 

Byakuya was even enjoying the battle until he managed to land a considerable blow to the shoulder of his opponent. As blood streamed down the Espada's torso, pooling gruesomely in his Hollow hole before spilling over and soaking into his white hakama, he yelled, "This is great. You're almost as good a fighter as Kurosaki."

Well. That insult could not stand. Byakuya threw himself into the fight with renewed purpose. After another few minutes of striving, both breathless, they paused at opposite sides of Senkei's barrier. His captain's haori, black kosode, and white shitagi were all mere shreds clinging to his body due to the sweat pouring from him, and his hakama too had suffered damage. If he were not careful, he might soon be nude and that would not be conducive to maintaining his dignity. 

As for wounds, he had what felt like a hundred shallow slices all over him, and a rather more serious one across his left bicep. Yet another, deeper one traversed his chest from right shoulder to left hipbone, and he spared a moment to seal those two with a quick kidou before resuming the battle. 

He might, under duress, one day admit to a certain amount of... concern when the second Espada, apparently losing the last of her patience, broke through Senkei's barrier with an almost insulting amount of ease to join the fight. But if he was displeased by the shift into a two-on-one battle, his original opponent was even moreso: the blue-haired gentleman began to gripe in such a way that Byakuya suspected the female would rather silence her colleague by killing him than fight Byakuya himself. 

"Grimmjow," she said, her voice husky for a woman and muffled by the high collar of her jacket, "is victory not the desired outcome, not 'a hell of a lot of fun', as you put it before? Aizen-sama will not be pleased to waste this amount of time on a single shinigami."

"But Halibel," this Grimmjow protested, sounding perilously close to a whine, "he's good! He hasn't died yet, and I've been trying to kill him really hard!"

She said nothing, just fixed him with an icy glare that Byakuya could only admire the frostiness of. His admiration was cut off short, however, when she turned and aimed herself at him like a big blonde torpedo. Brilliant yellow energy gathered within the hollow of her short blade, and as she approached, she slashed out to release an immense wave of power. Byakuya dodged and at the same time transformed Senkei into Kageyoshi, using the millions of blades as a shield against what he realized was her cero.

She cleft through Kageyoshi as if it were smoke, once her cero dissipated, and he returned Senbonzakura into Senkei to employ its power as an actual sword once more. There was no joy to her fight; she was all business, and rightly so. This was not a situation Byakuya should be enjoying. He should be defeating his foes so he could turn his attentions to returning to Soul Society. 

He was not best pleased to notice his reiatsu was starting to get depleted. He was tiring. This Grimmjow appeared to have a somewhat developed sense of honor, because he flatly refused to join Halibel in battling Byakuya at the same time, stating it wasn't a fair fight. Byakuya knew he'd have to fight Grimmjow after her, and wondered if he'd be able to scrape together the power to accomplish the feat.

They fought, and fought, and fought. It seemed to drag on for hours, though it could not have been more than a half hour. After one particularly hard clash, Halibel dashed her hair from her eyes with an impatient hand and snapped at Grimmjow to join her so they could get this over with and return to Aizen.

Grimmjow glowered at her but trudged forward, swinging his sword from where he'd been tapping it against his shoulder to point in Byakuya's direction. "Sorry," he said with a smirk. "Women. What can you do?"

Indeed. If not for Orihime, Byakuya wouldn't be here right now.

He wouldn't have it any other way.

Byakuya sighed on the inside, and prepared to die.