Exposed!

Exposed

Chapter XVI

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“This was way too easy,” Hitsugaya muttered, cautiously looking around as if he could spot a crack in the façade of a farce that was being played on them by Aizen. They had snuck into Las Noches and absolutely nothing had happened to them yet. It was almost like Aizen had known they were coming and had let them get in, but Hitsugaya couldn’t think of a reason for Aizen to let them waltz into his quarters. The ice captain didn’t really understand it; neither did any of his companions.

“Get a move on, whitey,” Ichigo drawled, earning a glare from the short captain and a snicker from everyone else present. “I don’t know about you, but we have a job to do.”

“Ichigo, he’s coming with us to get the Hogyouku. Idiot,” Rukia scolded. Ichigo flushed in embarrassment, scowled, and crossed his arms over his chest. They stood in a large chamber-like thing with three hallways stretching away from it, one of which they had just come out of. They were about to split up to perform the tasks they were given and Rukia was giving a few last minute reminders.

“Okay, once we grab the Hogyouku, we’ll meet up with you and relieve you from battle. If there are any minor injuries I can heal them and we’ll pick someone to take the Hogyouku back to Soul Society. Any questions before we’re off? No? Okay, then good luck Zaraki-taichou, Matsumoto fuku-taichou, Renji, Yumichika, and Grimmjow,” Rukia said as she turned to run down the nearest corridor with Ichigo and Hitsugaya behind her. The remaining Shinigami (and one blue-haired Espada) stood looking at each other a moment before they too disappeared down the other hallway that hopefully lead to wherever Aizen was.

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As Rukia ran, she made sure to turn on the radio she had been given so Inoue and the others could hear what was going on.

“Inoue, you should be able to hear what’s going on but you won’t be able to communicate back. We’re running down a hallway in search of the Hogyouku.”

“Yo, Inoue!” Ichigo said, grinning. “I like this radio thing, it’s kind of fun.”

Hitsugaya glared up at him and muttered, “Shut up, carrot-top.”

Ichigo was about to retort but was hit upside the head by the female of their group. He groaned slightly and held his head as he ran, glaring at her. Ikkaku just laughed gleefully at seeing Ichigo in pain.

“The fuck was that for, bitch?”

Rukia just laughed at him and said something about Grimmjow rubbing off on him. Ichigo settled for a scowl and ignored Hitsugaya’s laughter. He decided that now was the time to get serious about finding this thing because it was very dangerous in Aizen’s hands; the man had already demonstrated this when he had kidnapped Inoue two years ago. The carrot-top grunted and ran faster, determined to find this thing so they could finish the battle and go home.

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Zaraki’s wild laughter filled the large domed chamber as his sword clashed with Tousen’s. Grimmjow rolled his eyes, having no time for such distractions as Aizen stared him down. Grimmjow just stared back, impermeable to his towering form and unfazed by his piercing, cold brown eyes so unlike Ichigo’s warm ones. He didn’t even spare a glance as he heard Wondewice, his replacement, attack Renji or when Yumichika jumped at Yammy, muttering about how un-beautiful he was, or even when Ichimaru appeared out of nowhere and surprised Matsumoto. He knew that it was imperative that Aizen be defeated; the rest would collapse itself; take out the brain, the rest goes with it. He had the experience of having once followed Aizen and knew that the Espada, though they lusted after blood and instinctively knew that Shinigami were bad, were pretty much just a group of extremely powerful, brainless idiots. He had had his doubts about Ichimaru actually being loyal to Aizen and he really didn’t know what to think about the blind man other than he loathed him with every fiber of his being. Aizen was the more dangerous one to contend with, anyway.

Suddenly the brown-haired man attacked. Grimmjow was barely able to block, his eyes wide with surprise at the face grinning effortlessly in front of him.

“You think you stand a chance, Sexta?” A slow smirk appeared on Grimmjow’s face and he pushed back with his sword to try and equalize his footing.

“It doesn’t matter, does it?” He answered, jumping away as Aizen slashed at him. The other man laughed openly at him and crushed his forming Bala blast between his finger and thumb. Grimmjow simply grinned and tried again. He wasn’t going to give up; he would be the best distraction for Ichigo he could be. He just hoped that the others would be able to hold up as well.

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Ichigo rammed his shoulder into the door once more, grunting as he made contact and the door broke open. “Damn, that’s gonna leave a fuckin’ bruise.”

“Bitch and moan, strawberry,” Ikkaku said, grinning. “C’mon, we got a little magical ball to steal.”

Ichigo smirked and followed Ikkaku inside, ignoring Hitsugaya and Rukia sharing a look saying ‘boys will be boys.’ The two short ones followed the other two in and stopped short at what was in Ichigo’s hand. It was the Hogyouku! They all stood and stared for a moment, wondering why it was so easy to steal when an alarm suddenly pealed from deep within Las Noches. They looked at each other and bolted back down the hallway in the direction they came, hoping that they wouldn’t encounter anyone they would have to fight with. From their information, most of the Espada were in the real world fighting, but Rukia knew Aizen wasn’t stupid enough to leave himself defenseless.

Out of nowhere Ulquiorra was next to them, using his sonido to stay beside them. He struck out and caught Ichigo around the middle, flinging him up toward the ceiling. Ichigo just flipped around and caught the wall with his feet to push off back toward Ulquiorra, drawing his sword and going bankai after making sure the Hogyouku was still safe inside his gi. He used Getsuga Tenshou to create space between his friends and the Espada and used the debris it blew up to escape. Now was not the time to be fighting; even though his instincts were screaming at him not to run away, his first priority was to get the Hogyouku back to the others so someone could take it back.

He could hear Rukia panting next to him as they ran and knew that Inoue and the others were probably worried. He ran faster and they found themselves back in the chamber they had begun at and they made a sharp left to go into the corridor they needed to take them to where the battles were.

“Don’t worry, it’s okay. Ichigo was just attacked by Ulquiorra but we escaped and are about to bring the Hogyouku to Matsumoto fuku-taichou to take back to Soul Society,” Rukia muttered into the radio as they ran. Ichigo grabbed it from her.

“No worries! Rukia is going to stay out of the battle so she can heal, so she’ll give you blow-by-blows then! Like a sports announcer,” Ichigo said in fake cheer. He gave the radio back to a glaring Rukia and all of a sudden they were in a brightly-lit, large, domed room and the sounds of fighting instantly hit their ears.

Ichigo took a few seconds to observe what was going on; Grimmjow was fighting Aizen, Zaraki was clashing with Tousen, Matsumoto was trying to hold her own against Ichimaru, who seemed to be going easy on her, Renji was bleeding and attacking Wonderwice, and Yumichika, it seemed, had already killed Yammy. A tap on his shoulder and he turned to a questioning Rukia.

“Let’s send Matsumoto back with the Hogyouku. Zaraki and Grimm seem to be doing fine. We’ll have to relieve Renji and Yumichika –“ Ichigo was about to continue when a howl split the air. They whirled around to see Renji, chest heaving and standing over Wonderwice who had Zabimaru embedded through his chest, his eyes glazed, torso leaking blood.

“Matsumoto!” Ichigo yelled, stealing the vice-captain’s attention. “I’ve got a present for old man Yamamoto that you’re supposed to deliver!”

Matsumoto grinned and jumped gracefully back from her fight with Ichimaru. Ichigo handed her the wrapped up Hogyouku in mid-shunpo and like that she was gone, having jumped through the gate that Rukia had prepared. Rukia smiled and sat down in the corner, preparing to heal their injured comrades. She set up the radio next to her as well so the kids in the material world could clearly hear.

Ichigo smiled back at Rukia, excited for a good fight and let his voice drift over the battle sounds. “Renji, Yumichika, go get yourselves healed! Grimm –“ Before Ichigo could continue, a loud ripping noise interrupted him and Ulquiorra and Stark stepped out gracefully. Grimmjow let out a laugh and in an instant he was attacking Ulquiorra, leaving Aizen standing at the other side of the chambers looking slightly pissed. Ichigo growled in appreciation; now he could fight Aizen one-on-one, like he’d hoped. Ikkaku took Grimmjow’s lead and danced off to attack Stark, an almost rabid grin spread across his face. Hitsugaya replaced his vice-captain and the fight resumed again, with more ardor.

Rukia blocked out the sounds of battle and focused on healing first Renji, then Yumichika. The two hadn’t been too bloodied up in their fights, so their healing was quick work. The radio crackled beside then and Rukia pressed a button to accept the conversation. Soi Fong’s voice, sharp and purposeful, rasped over the airwaves: “Soi Fong, reporting from Soul Society. All Espada who have appeared here have been defeated and killed. We took no prisoners.”

Ichigo smirked as he parried a heavy thrust from Aizen, watching the man’s expression as it fought to remain unchanged. His brown eyes glittered dangerously and cold steel bit into Ichigo’s shoulder. The teenager gritted his teeth to stop himself from crying out, not wanting to give the ex-Shinigami the satisfaction of hearing the pain in his voice. The sword pulled out slowly, making the carrot-top moan quietly. Aizen pleasured in every wince, flinch and gasp of pain that came from the teenager as he slashed at him again, breaking skin and drawing lifeblood. Ichigo roared in anger and slashed back.

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Ukitake panted in Inoue’s living room as Byakuya took Inoue’s radio to report the goings-on in the material world to the group in Hueco Mundo. He began to speak, ignoring the curious and fascinated looks he was receiving from the teenagers; of course they would be interested, their friend was putting his life on the line at this very moment.

“Kuchiki Byakuya, reporting from the material world. All but two Espada have been destroyed. The two who weren’t are now back in Hueco Mundo as you probably already know. Ukitake and I are with Inoue Orihime and her friends right now. We will await your report.”

“What now?” Keigo asked quietly. He was glad that so far everything seemed to be going as Rukia had said, but he had the feeling that something might go wrong.

“We wait,” Ukitake said gently. He took pity on the humans who were confused and worried and probably a little scared of Byakuya. The teens sitting on the floor nodded and replaced their focus on the radio that was filled with sounds of continuous battle.

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Aizen heard the radio report and fought the urge to recoil. All his Espada but the two in front of him were destroyed? He couldn’t afford to be cautious then, if that was the truth. Abandoning his calm façade he thrust his sword into Ichigo’s calf and twisted as hard as he could, going half-mad as he drowned in the teenager’s cries of pain.

‘What the fuck is he doing!? He’s abandoned all carefulness,’ Ichigo thought as he avoided yet another slash that could’ve killed him. Aizen had stopped playing around and decided to get serious, evidently.

‘Well,’ Ichigo thought, ‘I’ll do the same then.’

Ichigo hooked his fingers around the air above his face and pulled out a white Hollow’s mask, his sword already in bankai mode. He laughed at Aizen’s practically foaming mouth –or was that his Hollow’s laugh? –and began attacking relentlessly, using his Hollow’s high pain threshold to ignore any injuries Aizen gave him. He wanted to look over at how Grimmjow was doing but his Hollow wouldn’t allow for such weakness. Instead he steeled his eyes with determination.

Sounds of swords clashing, grunts, cries of pain mixed together with blurred images of crimson, cold steel, black and white fabric until everything was in complete confusion. The Shinigami battling couldn’t waste a moment without focus, so they had no idea what was going on outside their own five foot bubble. The Shinigami sitting in the corner with Rukia couldn’t make out anything other than the blur of movement and the humans and Shinigami in Soul Society and the material world listening to the raging fight via Urahara’s radio could only hear the sounds of conflict. Everything was confused, but all that mattered was that the fighters knew what they were doing.

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The teenagers sat on the floor gathered around the radio as Byakuya, Ukitake, and now Urahara and Yoruichi joined them, sitting at Inoue’s kitchen table. Everything had gotten much quieter on the other side of the radio and suddenly Ichigo’s voice, hard and determined, drifted from the radio’s speakers.

“Getsuga Tenshou!”

Then there was a big crash and a cry of pain, and then absolute silence.

Tatsuki wrung her hands together, waiting for the heavy silence to be lifted; the crackling the radio speakers were emitting was almost as scary as complete silence. She shared a look with her classmates; Ishida, Chad, Keigo, Mizuiro, Inoue… All of them were waiting in anxious silence for something, anything, a sign of life from the other side of the radio and she could imagine the Shinigami in Soul Society doing the same thing.

Then the silence was broken by Rukia’s shaking voice and a rustling of cloth.

“R-Reporting from Hueco Mundo, this is Kuchiki Rukia. The Espada Stark and Ulquiorra, dead. Tousen appears to be dead as well. Ichimaru and Hitsugaya-taichou have been injured severely. Zaraki-taichou and Ikkaku are relatively uninjured. Renji and Yumichika have already been healed, they’re fine, and Matsumoto fuku-taichou has gone back to Soul Society with the Hogyouku. Ichigo and Aizen…”

Crackle.

“Ichigo and Aizen are both down. I can’t tell if they’re okay or not. Grimmjow is checking them now, and don’t worry, he’s fine too.”

In the background they could hear the sickening sound of steel sliding effortlessly through flesh and Grimmjow’s voice saying that if Ichigo hadn’t killed Aizen already, he had just done it. They could hear a muffled thud, probably Grimmjow dropping to the ground to check on Ichigo, and a few minutes later they could hear his cries of ‘wake up, wake up Ichi!’

Another short moment of silence and a groan.

A soft sigh from Rukia and she said, “Ichigo’s alive. We’re going to transport the wounded to Soul Society so Unohana-taichou and her squad can help them. Mission complete.”

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Ikkaku grunted as he picked up an annoyed and bleeding Hitsugaya and carried him bridal style through the gate that Rukia had prepared. He, Grimmjow and Zaraki were helping the injured back to Soul Society and the last one left was Ichigo, who was nestled carefully in Grimmjow’s arms. Grimmjow allowed Rukia to leave before him and jumped in after her, unbelieving that he had just fought and killed his long-time rival Ulquiorra… In fact, he was in shock that the whole war was suddenly over. He wasn’t really sure how he felt about it, but he didn’t have time to ponder as he deposited his lover into the arms of the healer woman who would now be responsible for his life.

Grimmjow shuddered at the thought of not having Ichigo in his life anymore and made a vow to see him every day until he was better. He knew he had been taking Ichigo’s presence for granted for the last two years; the teenager had always dropped everything for Grimmjow when he came to visit and he actually listened to what the Espada had to say. Well, maybe not in the beginning. Grimmjow chuckled at how they used to fight and then the fighting would somehow turn into fucking. Ichigo had hated him back then; oh yes, hated him, but loved getting fucked by him.

Grimmjow sighed and ran a hand through his hair as he allowed a small, kind girl with silver hair named Isane to heal his injuries. He would have to make it up to his lover, starting as soon as Ichigo woke up.


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