72 Boun

Running through the Dangai, a serene silence encompassed them while a constant twitching could be seen leaving Toshiro's eyebrows. Seeing the door to the living world in front, they quickly jumped through only to see a pair of lights approach them. Itsuki felt a sense of déjà vu as the three jumped to the side dodging the vehicle. Itsuki realised why he felt a sense of déjà vu, it was a common Japanese truck, similar to the one that brought him here. The driver didn't horn at them indicating that he never saw them.

A rather disturbing thought flashed through Itsuki's head.

'What would happen if I get hit by one?'

Seeing the truck drive away, Toshiro's voice brought Itsuki out of his thoughts,

"Need to tell the people that set our coordinates, to properly place the exit in a safe place."

Itsuki and Byakuya both nodded before the three turned towards a certain direction. They had immediately felt the lieutenants congregate at a certain location along with the humans and a few weird reiatsu. Toshiro seemed to hurry as he had it enough with the silent duo as he ran first. Watching him, Itsuki turned to Byakuya,

"It seems that he is not only short of height, but also short on patience,"

Toshiro had somehow heard this while a slight smile found Byakuya. Turning around he went to shout at them, but he realised that they had disappeared and long since passed him. Stomping in frustration he immediately followed.

- Unknown Location -

Rangiku could be seen easily defeating a shadow abomination and destroying the pillars surrounding her. She then focused her attacks towards the surrounding eye like creatures that poured out light from their eyes. The enemy seemed to be using the shadows around her to attack.

Rangiku had entered the cavern with Hisagi Shuuhei, Kira and Yumichika. They had all separated when they were faced against unknown attacks, but she had finally found how the power worked. Cutting the source of light, she made her way back to where she came from only to see another group of people that had entered. Two of them were in Shinigami clothing, Ichigo and Renji, and three of them were in a normal living world clothing, Rukia, Orihime and Sado. They were carrying four stuffed toys, one was a stuffed lion plushie, another was a human like bird with a blue hooded coat and red bow tie, one was a human like turtle plushie in a grey dress trousers, white shirt and a red bow tie while the last one was a pink rabbit with a colourful suit and ties that had been fashioned into a purse

The group of oddballs seemed to have just entered and were fighting the shadow like creatures while Orihime seemed to be constrained by one.

"Growl, Haineko."

Rangiku's sword dissipated into ash as they flew towards all the surrounding eye creatures, cutting of any source of light.

"Rangiku-san?"

Renji turned around to see their saviour as the rest followed. The lion stuffed toy had a shine in its eyes as it jumped towards Rangiku,

"Big breasts onee-chan!"

Seeing the perverted toy, Rangiku kicked it far away from her.

The bird plushie toy sitting on Ichigo's shoulder, started laughing while Rangiku turned towards the group.

"So, what are you guys doing here?"

"We were sent here by Urahara-san, by the way, where are the others?"

Looking round, Renji had a questioning face,

"We got separated."

Rangiku then looked at Rukia,

"Are you okay? Hisagi told me that you took damage on your already recovering soul."

Rukia had previously been injured by a bount but was luckily saved by Hisagi. Seeing that she was incapable of battle, she, Sado and Orihime decided to stay behind while Rangiku took care of them. Apart from the bird, the other three toys also stayed behind while only Ichigo and Renji made their way forward.

Running through the cave, they were suddenly assaulted by various flashes of lights as their shadows elongated. A hand came out from each shadow holding a bladed weapon intent on sneak attacking them. The two were temporarily blinded by the light as they never felt what was behind them. As the blades inched closer, suddenly two shadows appeared blocking the two blades creating sparks between.

Hearing the noise Ichigo and Renji turned around to see the bladed weapons stopped by another two Shinigami.

"Hisagi-san? Kira?"

As the four fought the various weapons arising from the shadows, the cave started rumbling as pieces of rubble and stone started falling. Seeing that him and Kira wouldn't be able to advance due to Kira's injuries, Hisagi turned to the two,

"Kurosaki, Abarai, you guys go ahead!"

The two nodded and continued forward only to meet the last member of the group heavily injured and unconscious.

"Yumichika-san!"

Seeing his former superior, Renji ran towards him. Seeing that he was barely awake, Renji looked at Ichigo then at the eye like creatures that made their appearance.

"Ichigo, you go forward, I'll hold this bount back!"

Ichigo, hearing this, gave a nod before making his way towards the main perpetrator behind all of this.

Within a secret room a man sat there in front of a table full of cards. He had the look of a professional man with a red tie, a white buttoned up shirt and large glasses. His hair was neatly combed to the said as he had a manic grin looking at the red-haired Shinigami through one of the eye like creatures.

"Thinking of going against Giselle all alone…"

While Renji was having a bout with that Bount Ichigo had made his entrance in front of various people standing on a podium of some sort.

The leader of them was a tall, muscular man with short, white hair and red eyes. He had long upward curling eyebrows and a scar on his chin. He wore a white shirt that had a red tie tucked in a pair of black dress pants, all under a long brown overcoat. He was Kariya JIn

Behind him stood five individuals. On the left was an old man wearing a black suit and a purple ascot surrounding his neck. He was standing up with the help of a walking cane. Next to him was a tall and lean built man wearing a sleeveless Shinigami shihakuso. He had brown eyes and dark raven hair where a large portion of it fell down the middle.

On the right was a woman with green teal hair and green eyes beneath a pair of furrowed eyebrows. She wore a purple Manchurian style qipao and beige pants. To her left was a unique looking man. His orange hair was clean and cut shirt on the left side while it was messy and jaw-length on the right. He wore a sleeveless shirt and shorts with black trimmings alongside a pair of loose boots. He had two red belts around his waist while four black belts around his shorts, two on each leg.

Next to him was a large and muscular man with dark skin, short cut red hair and an orange mohawk. He wore a large sleeveless shirt and a pair of headphones around his neck.

Looking at Ichigo, Kariya started speaking,

"How many bount must you people kill before you are satisfied?"

Ichigo was shocked by the revelation as he deduced an aspect.

"So, you were the one that revealed that guys hideout."

"It was a necessary sacrifice."

Ichigo seemed enraged as he started attacking Kariya. This time it wasn't a one-sided fight, rather, Ichigo was able to hold his ground for some time before being miserably defeated. As Ichigo was getting beaten up, he was able to unleash his Bankai for the first time after entering the living world. It went a rather cliché way with him remembering all the suffering his friends went through, how they were trying hard and why he couldn't let them down. As Ichigo finally created some damage against Kariya, a reishi arrow interrupted their battle.

This marked the entrance of a new intruder, Ishida. He seemed to have regained his powers after losing them in a fight against Mayuri.

Behind him, the group that stayed behind also ran out, minus Renji, Kira and Hisagi.

At the entrance though, three figures had appeared.

"Is this the place?"

Toshiro was once again the one that spoke up as Byakuya answered,

"Yes."

Itsuki looked into the cave as he felt both familiar and unfamiliar reiatsu coming from inside. Looking at his fellow captains, he saw Byakuya having a worried look in his eyes.

'It seems he's worried about Rukia.'

Looking at Byakuya a smirk surfaced on Itsuki's face. Byakuya felt something wrong as he turned around and saw Itsuki smirking at him. Realising his friend saw through him, Byakuya coughed and was about to change the subject when all three captains looked in one direction.

They felt a spike in reiatsu and a gate opening, feeling this, they immediately disappeared with Itsuki in the lead.

'It seems that Ishida has just opened the gate.'

Back in the hall, Ichigo's group was surprised seeing Ishida's apparent betrayal while Kariya seemed like he expected it. Upon failing to recruit Ishida, Kariya then made his way to the gate to begin the invasion of soul society.

While Kariya was making his victory speech,

"…Quincy and Shinigami brat, came after- "

Suddenly a chill went through all the bount and the lone Shinigami as they jumped out of the gate.

*BOOM*

The gate suddenly exploded bringing with it a cloud of dust.

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Author's note

Fell asleep in the middle of writing this chapter.

So sorry for no chapter yesterday.

I'm trying it out various ways of writing because I don't want to rush too much while also trying to give the characters life and not make the story boring, it seems im not very good at it.