"If you're gonna act like a badass, then you should probably have the skill to back it up." — Hōzukimaru.
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The preface of the commotion that was happening in the Seireitei ended in a false note that left the Shinigami in a false sense of victory, except for those who were more experienced and had participated in their fair share of rebellions.
While the others cheered and boasted and threw insults at those traitors who had been consumed by their Bakkoto, the older Shinigami remained cautious as they could clearly see that the theme of this latest rebellion was yet to fully play out.
They tried to warn the others but their peers were filled with righteous pride as they all said the same thing: 'Let them come. These traitors will all meet the same end.'
Pride and morale was high, fueled by the infectious intensity of moral duty, and they let out a victory cheer as they put a stop to the rebellion by themselves without the help of a Captain. And that was where the problem lied.
The older Lieutenants and Seated Officers tried their best to make sure everyone remained in a state of high alert and not the victorious high spirits they were in, but they had little success as their efforts were seen as killing the mood and 'shitting on morale'.
The fact remained that an angry Captain's Reiatsu had blanketed the whole of Seireitei. And while it had eased up some, the sky still remained grey, the air still felt hard on the lungs, and the sky still remained decorated with crows.
Captains don't lose their temper to anger and press down the entire Seireitei with their Reiatsu just because. The celebrating Shinigami failed to realize that.
This was more than just losing control for a moment, or a passionate Captain's overreaction. The Reiatsu had been down right murderous, and what was more alarming was the person it came from.
For the older Shinigami, there were some specific things they had come to never expect from some of the Captains.
Seeing Captain Uchiha that visibly angry and being that oppressive about it was a greatly unsettling image they could never conjure up in their heads. It was like seeing Captain Unohana or Captain Ukitake do the same. The image just felt wrong.
"That just about wraps it up," Ikkaku said to Nanao upon her arrival. Just like him, she wore a tight expression on her face and her carefully warded expression looked crumpled in a few places. "Everything clear up there?"
"Yes," came the curt reply. "I met Sasakibe and Mashiro on my way here. It seems like it's truly over."
Ikkaku snorted. "You mean it's about to start." Her expression grew difficult at those words, something Ikkaku ignored and simply continued. "Whatever's about to happen ain't gonna be pretty, I tell ya. Heck, I'm sweating down my back already."
"Aren't you overreacting?" Nanao's eyes behind her glasses squinted at the 11th's bald Third Seat.
"My Captain laughed like a madman and ran off, Nanao. That's as close as you can get to a catastrophe." Ikkaku chuckled weakly. "All the Captains are alert, but none of them have made a move."
"My Captain complained and put away his drink." Nanao offered her own experience.
"And you know the worst part?" They both looked up at the sky as crows circled over like a burial wake.
Someone had managed to completely pissed off a Captain. It was never a good sign whenever a Captain forsake composure and control in exchange for a rampage.
And because they had been on high alert since the Reiatsu first unfurled, they instantly noticed the wrongness seconds before the shadows started rising up from the ground.
"Oi, what the hell are those?" someone asked as the forming shadows started surrounding them.
The state of the shadows varied individually, some possessing more form and feature than others, but the most unsettling thing about them was what the Shinigami were currently feeling.
"Oi oi oi, the hell is happening, glasses?" Ikkaku half shouted as the cold feeling on his back pricked him.
"I… I… I…" Nanao was tongue-tied as her senses let her feel the shapes deeper than any words could convey. The more the forms settled the more her heart sank.
In a most impressive display of clarity most Shinigami lacked, with the clear exceptions of the Captains, Ikkaku knew who he was looking at, despite never having seen the figure before him. It was almost like an animal's instinct. Even without reason or knowledge, he arrived at a conclusion.
"Oi, Hōzukimaru, what the hell is the meaning of this?!" He yelled as the foremost shadow's form gained the features of a heavily muscled spirit with long thick orange hair and wielding a naginata. His voice wavered with uncertainty as he spoke to his Zanpakutō spirit that was now standing in front of him.
"Fancy meeting you out here, eh brat?" There was a mocking glint in the eyes of the huge Zanpakutō spirit as he looked down at Ikkaku with his spear leveled at his wielder, while the other shadows in different shapes and forms looked at their Shinigami, most of whom looked lost and confused and betrayed. "I'm surprised you could recognize me in this form. Maybe there will be meaning to this after all."
"The hell is that s'posed to mean? Huh?!" Ikkaku was lost, but Hōzukimaru was right in front of him, not inside him, so he couldn't contextualize what he was currently feeling.
"The enemy has robbed us of our Zanpakutō spirit." Nanao muttered beside him, earning her a thoroughly lost look from the bald hyperventilating Shinigami. "The enemy has the ability to materialize and separate a Zanpakutō spirit from their Zanpakutō, and from the looks of it, they can control them too."
It was the bare strip of information she had gotten from her Captain's loose lips after he had drunk himself to sleep after a particularly draining meeting. She didn't know how important that information was at the time, given her Captain's habits of blabbing incomprehensibly whenever he was in one of his moods, but now she knew.
"That's…. That's impossible…" a betrayed Shinigami muttered in a dead disbelieving voice.
Ikkaku turned back to his Zanpakutō spirit, ignoring the Shinigami behind him who were crying out the names of their Zanpakutō, and wore a shaky grin as he leveled his Zanpakutō on his spirit. "What the hell is happening, Hōzukimaru?"
Whether it was because of the understanding between Shinigami and their Zanpakutō spirit, Hōzukimaru grinned but answered him truthfully.
"A rebellion. What else does it look like? If you want to know more then you'll have to beat it out of me. How about it, Mr. Tough Guy? Kenpachi is not here to babysit you, so think you can do it?"
Veins bulged on Ikkaku's forehead as he went to retort only to be held back by Nanao.
"Think clearly, Ikkaku. By the clarity of their forms, yours is the strongest one here. We'll have a better chance at beating him together than you jumping in alone."
The reasoning was sound but the hesitation on Ikkaku's face was clearer. "What about yours?"
"I don't have a Zanpakutō spirit. My Asauchi is dormant." She stated without any inflection. The sky was grey and she did not have a Zanpakutō. Both were plain facts, nothing special.
"I see. You must be good at Kidō then." Ikkaku easily accepted it, and other than the initial surprise, he showed no other thought to it. Since when was not having a Zanpakutō anything to brag about? His Captain's Zanpakutō was as dead as a rock but that did not diminish a single thing from Zaraki Kenpachi. If anything else, it made him even more dangerous.
"I am." Nanao nodded.
"Sorry, but I'll be doing this alone. Ain't that right, Hōzukimaru?" He asked the patiently waiting Zanpakutō spirit who just grinned in reply. Nanao wanted to protest the decision but he simply jabbed his finger to those behind them. "Help them instead. It's best that way."
Before she could say anything to that, the grin on his face turned downright maddening as he let out a furious yell.
"Ourya!!!" He rushed at the maliciously grinning Zanpakutō spirit who simply hefted his spear and crashed it into Ikkaku's sword, sending the man flying through a row of buildings. Their attack marked the beginning of the conflict between Shinigami and Zanpakutō as the malformed shadows rushed at the shaken Shinigami.
Ikkaku stood up with a bleary vision and a bloody head, momentarily in disbelief at the force with which he had been swatted to the side by his own Zanpakutō spirit.
"Taking a nap?" a massive shadow fell over him, making him take a step back before stopping himself. He forced his excited vision to focus on Hōzukimaru, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword.
"I guess you would take a nap. An obnoxious child deluding himself with proclamations of strength. I guess this is the part where you cover your mediocrity with a laugh and a louder proclamation." Hōzukimaru bore down on him and Ikkaku forced himself to stand upright and kept his eyes fixed on the bigger spirit who now wore a placid expression of drained disappointment.
"Since when did you become this chatty?" he tasted blood in his mouth as he spoke. Just how hard had he been hit?
The Zanpakutō spirit did not reply the question but instead made a comment of his own. "If the average Shinigami of the Seireitei is on the same level as you, then today will be the day the Shinigami lost."
It was unclear if the red he was seeing was blood entering into his eyes but Ikkaku flushed hot with anger. Others could mock him however they wanted, but the one person he did not expect to do so was the very person in front of him.
"You'll fucking eat those words." He promised and successfully brought back the glint to Hōzukimaru's eyes.
Hōzukimaru lowered himself into a thrust stance and bared his teeth at Ikkaku, who copied his stance with his sword. "There you go with the proclamations again."
But there was something beneath it that Hōzukimaru kept to himself. Bar the Captains, some of them at least, Ikkaku was the only other Shinigami who outright recognized his Zanpakutō spirit in their realized forms. Hōzukimaru grinned.