Trial of Fire

Chapter 22
Five elements

Barbo made sure they were near the water, as close as he could lure Akuho. The more water at his disposal, the more power his bankai had.

It was moments like this he thought of his mother, who had full mastery of the element and he wondered if his bankai wasn’t a reflection of his hollow heritage seeing as he was the only one with ‘mask fragments’ that didn’t have a Resurrección.

The water was still full of floating corpses that reeked even this high up in the air and he didn’t dare get any closer just encase they decided to come to life again.

Akuho was tremendously large now, at least forty feet tall and an inferno of fire. Barbo was glad there was a sizable lake to draw from because the heat from Akuho alone was already causing mist to form on the lake twenty feet below and he could feel the heat from here.

He drew his blood and ran it down the seal on his arm, the navy blue catfish glowing briefly before disappearing. That part done he went to the next step.

“Bankai, Ginkiri Namazu.” He declared softly.

His Zanpakuto disappeared, and he always thought about his father’s Senbonsakura when it happened. A moment later twin streams of water circled around him, the heads resembling large catfish.

More and more appeared as he drew water from the lake below. With a roar Akuho sent down a wall of fire towards him, evaporating the mist it went by while creating more from the lake below.

Barbo held his ground as five of the catfish raced to meet the strike, merging to form one large catfish that swallowed the strike of fire before bursting into mist from the intense heat.

That was fine, twelve more had already risen from the lake at Barbo’s command, steam continuing to rise until it was forming clouds in the air and the intense difference of heat and cold caused lightning to start striking and thunder to rumble.

A fitting background to their battle.


Leon smirked as he pulled down the set of shades Urahara had made for him. He was proficient in blind fighting but he had a feeling that this time he would need all his senses if he was to fight this creature.

He debated what form was better suited for this battle. His blitzkrieg Sonpo/kidou style, or his slower but physically stronger Resurrección. It was unknown if the former espada retained their old powers, but to be on the safe side Leon decided to go with the Resurrección.

“Morder, Leon Melena .” He declared.

He felt the power flood into him and that feeling of being whole was most welcomed. He lost his staff, but that was fine, the triple blades on either hand was more then enough. With a wide grin, he charged in, his blades sparking off of Akuawai’s.

Despite the fact his weapon was now gone, and thus the charm as well, the effects of the charm appeared to remain as the creature hissed in pain as his blades got close and flecks of white light seemed to be falling away from the creature.

One of the creatures eyes suddenly burst fully opened and glowed. Leon instinctively covered his eyes. He had about four seconds to grab his arm before he stabbed himself through the head with his own blades.

“Shit.” Leon cursed as he bit deep into his traitorous arms wrist to hold it still as he used his other hand to parry the attack coming at him.

So the bastards did retain their espada abilities. Leon glared at Akuawai as more flecks of light seemed to drop until a field of eyes was revealed. They all burst open at the same time and Leon disintegrated into gray dust.


Had he been there twenty odd years ago, Zan would have realized that his fight with Akutsuchi almost mirrored the one Kenpachi had against Nnoitra and appreciated the slim amount of irony.

As it was he was grateful that he was the one fighting Akutsuchi because no one could match the strength of his Hierro other then the original shell of the creature before him. Because the Aku’s were not only the originals, but had released their abilities as well.

If two scythes had been hell to deal with, six was just a plain nightmare and if it hadn’t been for his hierro he would have long since been impaled to death. Instead the strong hierro turned what would have been death strikes into gashes instead.

The Onwoadadekaesu at least seemed to be having an effect, as his blades were able to at least draw a bit of blood from Akutsuchi. Now if only he could get past the creatures defenses and stab him through the head to destroy the gem.

He knew chopping arms off didn’t do a lot of good, but hay, maybe he could chop them off faster then the creature could regrow them and he could finally get a strike in.

“Sangre Inciso.” He shouted, the red like blades shooting from his katars, severing two arms off and slicing one of the blades in half.

They re-grew of course and he instantly thought of Piccolo before deciding that perhaps his sister had been right when they were younger, he did watch too much TV, not that he would ever admit that to her. Grimmjow would hug Ichigo first before that happened.


Taka ducked and dove as she weaved through the burst of air being sent her way, able to easily read what would have been invisible currents to anyone else. Azucena remained close to her mind, silent so as not to distract her unless something was required to be noted, like the globs of purple goo that was suddenly flying at her mixed in with the jets of air.

Taka folded her wings and plummeted, fully dodging the attack. She was no fool and they had been fully versed on the former Espada and their abilities. She did not want to be fighting clones of herself.

She came out of the dive with a wide snap of her winds and skyrocketed into the air, flapping vigorously when her momentum peeked to get above Akukaze.

“Acero Pluma.” She shouted, feathers raining down from her wings like bullets. They were knocked away by a whirl wind.

She growled in annoyance. Getting close to this guy was becoming rather troublesome. She decided to try something else instead. She dove again, Akukaze following her. She skimmed across the surface of the lake before coming to the shore.

Once she had hit the land she snapped her wings open and twirled about, landing on the ground and sliding several good feet. He landed as well, facing her.

With a wide grin she snapped her wings open and launched another Acero Pluma at him. He whipped up another whirl wind to block the attack, and in doing so whipped up all the sand around them.

He could no longer see her in the chaos of swirling sand, but she knew precisely where he was. Watching as he floundered about and pumping her own wings to keep the sand storm swirling she began to charge her attack.


The first thing Galgo made sure of was that they were not fighting by the water, that would have been foolish. Despite that fact zombies still ambled up from the lake. Garou tore through them all the while complaining about the taste and demanding he get a whole cow after this as a reward for putting up with it.

Galgo had just sighed and agreed as he launched a lightning bolt up at Akumizu, trusting Garou to deal with the zombie threat. Akumizu did not seem to like the lightning. In fact the last shot had the mass of water bubbling.

Galgo barely had time to give Garou a kick to the sides to sent the wolf leaping forward in a snarl and at the same time saving them both from the large thing that had shot at them. Galgo leaped from Garou’s back and brought both blades down upon the appendage, severing it and nodding in satisfaction when Akumizu roared in agony.

Garou leaped up and caught the other appendage aimed for Galgo’s back, fangs snapping it in half and acid burning and mixing with Akumizu’s bloodstream, causing the creature to roar in agony.

It became a slash and hack fight, slicing down the never ending stream of zombies, Akumizu’s sucker things, and still try to get the death blow on the creature. With a snarl of frustration Garou launched himself into the air where the zombies could not reach him.

Seeing his Zanpakuto’s red eyes glow more sharply then before Galgo ran up the next sucker thing instead of just slicing it to get off of the ground. He did not want to be caught up in what was about to happen.

Kinomi felt the raise of the others reiatsu’s and knew they were all fighting now. She could not afford to worry about them, could not even spare a second of concentration or she would be dead.

Their blades met repeatedly and while it appeared she was even in strength and speed with Akuyami, his reiatsu was far superior to hers. His tail was becoming a nuisance too, as was his sickening regeneration rate. She wasn’t sure what was natural and what was a result of bring under Tsukimono.

She had to have been impaled four times by his tail already, three in her legs and once through the arm wielding ‘tera. Had she had a second to think she would have been thanking Ikkaku and Hisagi for teaching her how to duel wield because if she hadn‘t known how she would have been long dead. In almost three years she still could only hold her Bankai form for so long. At first it had been five minutes. Now it was up to half an hour. It was times like this she wished she had her fathers near infinite pool of reiatsu, but she didn’t and staying in Bankai form took a lot out of her.

“At least you don’t have flower petals counting down your demise like Toshiro-taichou.” Kyattsuai had commented one day. Kinomi could not argue with that statement in the least.

She hissed as his tail whipped around and the bladed edge made a new scratch across her cheek while Kyattsuai parried Akuyami’s blade and ‘tera parried his clawed hand. She set her foot against his stomach and kicked off, putting some distance between them to reset the melee as she had once again been drawn into a loosing round.

She was panting heavily and he looked like he had barely moved. She didn’t dare pause to wipe the sweat from her brow for such an action would leave her open for attack. She gapped as Akuyami suddenly began to draw power to his hand and she barely had time to dodge the cero that went flying at her.

“That could have hurt.” She noted to herself. “Well, I always wanted a fight like this and now that I got one I can’t complain. Alright Kyattsuai, are we ready to go in to live or die?” She asked.

“Yes. Use ‘tera.” Kyattsuai commanded.

Kinomi nodded, then with a flash of Shunpo launched herself at his again, ‘tera leading the way. The Onwoadadekaesu didn’t seem to have a large amount of effect on Akuyami and she wasn’t sure if it was because it wasn’t working, or just because he was so strong.

She knew where his hole was, and thus the controlling gem, but getting to it was near impossible. At least not without more or less getting herself killed at the same time. She needed more speed and power.

Speed to make it past his blocks and parries, power to make it through the inky darkness that he seemed to be wearing as a suite. The only part of him not covered in the stuff was his eyes. Eyes that were a deep shade of green and stared at her coldly and calculating.

It was the calculating that had her unnerve, as if he was studying her worth or trying to figure her out.

“Hmm, I wonder if any of his memories are in there.” Kinomi wondered during their next break.

“Perhaps.” Kyattsuai responded, curiosity also in her voice.

“I know who you really are.” Kinomi stated, watching his eyes intently. “Otousan told me about you.”

His eyes remained cold but he did not move to attack.

“You probably know him, Kurosaki Ichigo.”

There was a slight flicker in those eyes, as if an annoying puzzle had been solved.

“Yea, he’s my old man.” Biting her lip she decided to try one last thing. “She misses you ya know. She never wanted you dead, even when you tormented her with words she never wanted to end your life. It hurt her deeply that you were so close to understanding and then it ended.”

“Kinomi, what are you doing?” Kyattsuai demanded.

“She would want me to set you free, and I can destroy the spell that is binding you and the others.” Kinomi promised, pointing ‘tera at him.

His eyes flickered to the blade.

“You know ‘tera, of course you do. She belongs to Grimm-ji.” She smiled wistfully. “She said the two of you didn’t get along, Grimm-ji always trying to pick a fight. Anyway, I can tell you are getting board with my chatter, but I think you should know..”

She paused to look him dead in the eye.

“Orihime-chan is alive and still morns your pointless death, Ulquiorra.”

There was a flash in those green eyes and Kinomi rushed forward, pouring all of her reiatsu into the shunpo and behind her strike as she drove ‘tera through his chest, ignoring the sting of his blade as it sliced into her arm, the pain in her back as his tail’s blade impaled her. His other hand was parried by Kyattsuai.

They remained motionless in the air for a moment, Kinomi’s brown eyes boring into his deep green ones. Then the darkness began to flake away to reveal the espada within, the black gem imbedded in his hollow hole shattering and blowing away like fine dust.

Sense returned to those green eyes that bore into hers and she wondered if he would now break away from her to take revenge of Akusesshou for imprisoning his soul, or if he would finish her off.

She felt her vision begin to waver as blood poured from her wounds and the tail jabbed into her back was rather painful and uncomfortable. She felt her Bankai form drop as she was unable to maintain it any longer.

Then he changed, losing the wings and tail, his mask shifting until he looked like how she had been told his form appeared. She pushed away from him and they stood facing each other.

She began to drift to the ground, unable to maintain her reiatsu enough to stay air born. She could feel her friends fighting and looking back up at the motionless former Espada, she began to head towards them.

“I see you are as stubborn as your Otousan.” Came a voice from behind her.

She turned to see the Espada had made a quick recovery and was standing close by.

“You can not hope to win and yet you think you can.”

Kinomi chuckled.

“Winning, losing, it’s the fight that’s the fun part.” She grinned at him. “I was raised by Grimm-ji and Kenpachi-taichou after all.”

She kept walking, he would either follow or not. It made no difference to her, at least until she collapsed from blood lose and exhaustion.

“Shit.” She cursed. “Wasted too much energy freeing him.” She grumbled as she tried to force her body to move.

“Rest a moment.” Kyattsuai commanded.

“Good thing Onwowhatsit worked on him.” Kinomi commented. “In a real fight to the death I think I would have been dead already.” She grumbled. “Still so far to go.”

“Look on the upside.” Kyattsuai chirped into her tired mind. “You technically beat the fourth while Kenpachi-taichou had a hard time beating the 5th. Bragging rights.”

Kinomi chuckled weakly, pointing out that it hardly counted. She had not been fighting the fourth, more like the fourth and her had been fighting Akusesshou. He was not going to be happy when he found out he lost control over his strongest pet.

Kinomi continued to limp forward towards the others. She stumbled and would have landed on the ground had she not been steadied by her former opponent.

“You should rest.” He commented.

With a sigh, Kinomi had to admit he was right. She had been stabbed multiple times and earned a large number of gashes in various location upon her body. She was leaving a rather impressive trail of blood.

With a grumble she pulled out her small first aid kit and started to tend to her wounds before she ended up losing too much blood. The roll was taken from her hand and she looked at her former opponent in surprise.

“Repayment.” He answered her silent question.

Nodding, she let him tend to her wounds the best that could be done with the kit. Most would need stitches and at least a week in the 4th.

The air was thick in mist, like a deep, great fog it covered a good portion of the lake. In its center stood Akuho, fire blazing all around him, drawing up more and more mist as his intense heat fried the water below them.

“Like the mindless fool you are, you create your own demise.” Barbo declared calmly.

Akuho roared and shot another stream of fire at him, blocked by a wall of water risen from the lake below that was quickly turned into more mist. It was time.

The mist consolidated and became fused with his reiatsu. It moved like it had a life of its own and rushed in on Akuho. The creature screamed as each particle of mist sliced him like a blade and his body was reduced to ribbons, his fire snuffed out. It would only be for a moment, but that was all Barbo needed as he rushed in, the mist forming into his Zanpakuto and the Onwoadadekaesu slapping against his arm as he plunged the blade through the controlling Gem, shattering it.

There was a moment of silence, and then Akuho returned to his true form and fell to crash into the earth. Barbo calmly sheathed his blade and walked away, heading towards Reina’s reiatsu.


Akuawai blinked and brushed some of the ash from his many eyes, all of them open and glowing. A bit of the stuff whirled about him under his control, but the rest just floated.

And then it struck. He screamed as all of his eyes were sliced to ribbons as the Ash slashed him as if it was a living blade. When he was completely blind it came together and Leon reformed, grinning wildly.

“Didn’t know I could do that did you?” He smirked.

Then he plunged his bladed fist through the white gem. Akuwai roared and the light exploded from his body before he fell to the ground, unmoving and back to his true form. Leon landed gently and checked, noting the man seemed to either be dead, or just really knocked out.

Either way didn’t matter to him. He stood up from the corpse and honed in quickly on the others reiatsu.

Kinomi’s was weak, but alive and stable. The others were still fighting with the possible exception of Barbo.

“Hold on neesan, I am coming.” Leon promised as he sprinted away, heading towards Reina’s reiatsu.


Zan panted as he glared at the former espada panting across from him, who seemed to like the idea of glaring and thus was glaring at him.

Both were beat to near exhaustion, but it had been done. A double Sangre Inciso to slice most of the arms and scythes to pieces, and blocking the others with his katars he had resorted to taking the Onwoadadekaesu in his mouth and had bitten, yes bitten, through the controlling gem in Akutsuchi’s face.

Now he and who was a fully in control of himself, Nnoirta was glaring at him. He was still in his release form but the former Espada was not, nor was his Zanpakuto anywhere near by.

Zan knew Barbo and Leon had finished their fights, as had Kinomi and he wanted to join them, but first he had to make sure this guy wasn’t going to go after their backs.

“I hate your eyes.” Nnoitra hissed.

“Why, because they remind you of my Otousan?” Zan asked.

“Otousan?”

“Grimmjow.” Zan grinned. “It’s been twenty years since you got your ass kicked by Kenpachi-taichou. Stuffs happened.”

“Aizen lost?”

“Yep.” Zan nodded.

“Neliel.”

“In the living world last I saw of her.” He shrugged.

“The bitch is still alive?”

“Yeah, well, she’s a tuff cookie that’s for sure. Look, I would love to catch up on the last twenty years or so, but I got friends to help and a Bastard who dared to torture my Otousan to kill. We going to continue this or can we save it for another day?”

Nnoitra actually looked at him in surprise.

“Continue this?”

“Why not, assuming we live and such. Good fight, not many can get past my hierro, not even Neesan.”

“Neesan, Grimmjow has two brats?”

“No, same mother, different father, although some days it is hard to tell who is who’s kid. Look, I really got to go. Can we finish this another day?”

“I’ll hold you to that promise, brat.”

“Zan.” He corrected. “Colimillo Zangetsu Jeagerjaques. Want to piss my Otousan off, call me Zan or Zangetsu, he hates the fact I am named after Kurosaki’s zanpakuto.”

Now that earned a chuckled out of Nnoitra.

“Oh, and if you want to piss Ichigo off,” Zan added as he walked away, “Call my neesan Pantera. He loathes the fact she is named after Grimmjow’s zanpakuto.”

Zan moved towards the others in a bang of Sonido. He had no doubt he would see the former Espada again, only this time it would be one on one instead of one on some guy fighting to regain control of his body and weakened by Urahara’s device.


The sandstorm raged around them, blinding both combatants. That was fine. Taka knew precisely where Akukaze was, her Aguila Ojo made sure of that. She finished charging her attack.

“Otousan is going to kill me twice over.” She thought to herself briefly as she looked at the gathered energy in her hand before firing it at Akukaze.

The gran ray cero slammed into Akukaze, disintegrating him to almost nothing. Taka dove in, drawing her blade and slashing as she spotted the light blue Gem in the quickly reforming creature.

By the time her blade struck home wind was already starting to whip up around Akukaze, but it quickly died. Azucena shouted out in warning and Taka was just able to barrel roll out of the way and avoid the strange, red, bell like things on his wings.

“Hmm, I missed.” A voice declared, exhaustion clearly in it. “What a pity.”

“What the hell?” She hissed.

“An intriguing creature indeed. How did you set me free?” Szayel asked.

“Like hell I am going to tell you now, ungrateful prick.” She huffed. “If you will excuse me, I have a friend to rescue.”

“Hold on one moment please. What rank might you hold?”

“3rd seat of the 11th.” She answered.

“The 3rd Fracción of the 11th?” He asked confused.

“What? God no. The 3rd seat of the 11th Division under Kenpachi-taichou.”

“Arrancar have joined soul society?” He asked in disbelief.

“No, well yes, sort of, but I do not have the time to explain.” She was about to fly off to get to Reina but paused, sensing this one would be all too happy to hit her from behind. “Oh, one last thing before I fly off. My Otousan is the 1st Espada, Stark. Think about that before coming after my back.” She warned.

A look of pure shock crossed his face before she disappeared in a bang of Sonido towards where the others were gathering on their way to Reina. His release form dropped and he fell on his butt in pure exhaustion.

“Stark-sama’s daughter. Arrancar can have kids? A most intriguing proposition, I shall have to study it further.” He looked down at himself and grimaced. “After a good bath and a long rest when I have regained my glory.” He added as an after thought.


“Ugh, rancid.” Galgo muttered as he stood up on a rock that as slowly dissolving.

“You know the acid wont harm you.” Garou snorted, walking in the puddle of red liquid that was slowly draining away, the melted parts of the zombies slowly dissolving until not even the bones were left.

Of Akumizu there was nothing left but a puddle of goo also melting away, the gem shattered and dissolved. Garou stopped by the rock and Galgo gingerly jumped onto the wolfs back, making sure nothing touched the red acid.

Garou snorted and padded through the slowly dwindling pool to join up with the others. Everyone was there but Kinomi and they raced after Reina’s reiatsu.

Stay Tuned for Chapter 23: Torn Apart

Where defeating your opponent does not always mean victory and foes can be friends


As usual /love the reviews everyone and you have until Sunday night to get all your request out there. Remember you don't need an account or to log in to review and submit your darkest desires. I have plans for Ulquiorra and Szayel will hook up with but nothing for Nnoitra atm. The three of them are open for requested torture.

I love how some of the request are already fulfilled in part 3. I will say no more on that matter other than 7dragons7, look forward to the surprise in chapter 24. It's been killing me since Crossbreeding and I am not sure how much longer I can hold it back.

As for how wicked fast I am at typing......well...... the whole thing is already written to it's just a matter of editing and posting the chapter. I like to finish a story before posting it if I can, it lets me change things, move things about, etc.

Part 3 is almost done and part 2.5 is going smoothly and just waiting for all the request to finish coming in. Please feel free to make multiple request as you think of them.

Current Appearances by Request.

Kinomi: has Ichigo's and eyes and her mothers hair. Her features are slightly less sharp then her fathers.
Her uniform is sleeveless and she wears a white cloak over it. On the back of the cloak is a circle of 11 blue yarrow flowers, the division seal, surrounding the kanji for 4. She had two small braids, one with Kenpachi's bell an the other with the blue and white feathers from Yumichika and Ikkaku
Her sash is also blue and holds the kanji for 11, Pantera, and the yarrow flower on one of the ends. The kanji are black

Taka: Unohana's face and eyes and her fathers hair, but black. Her mask fragments look like the head of a falcon with the wings spread out to either side going around her neck like a necklace.
Her uniform is sleeveless and she wears a white cloak over it. On the back of the cloak is a circle of 11 brown yarrow flowers, the division seal, surrounding the kanji for 3. She had two small braids, one with Kenpachi's bell an the other with the molten brown feathers from Yumichika and Ikkaku
She wears a brown sash the holds the kanji for 11, Taka, and the yarrow flower on one of the ends. The kanji are black.

Galgo: Spiting image of his father, only younger. His uniform is very plain with the ends of his sash short like Ukitake's.

Barbo: Kuchiki features, with his mothers green eyes. Mask fragments are T shaped running along his collar bone and down to his belly button. He wears his uniform the same way as his father, minus the captains cloak of course :)

Akata: Spitting image of his father while still a taichou minus the glasses and younger looking. Often wearing a lab coat over his uniform.

Reina: The more severe face of her father, but with her mothers eyes and hair. Her hollow mask is shaped like a simple tiara on her forehead. She is NOT well endowed like her mother but does have pink scarf wrapped loosely around her neck and wears a ring giving to her by Barbo. It is made from white rock and carved to look like a set of wings.

Azucena: Look like her father but with her mothers pink eyes. her uniform is typical of the 4th.

Leon: Has ginger hair but his fathers cat like eyes. His mask is like a lions mane that goes all around the back of his neck before becoming narrow half way up the back of his head and forming into two fangs that stopped right at his hair line on his forehead.
His uniform is sleeveless and he wears a yellow sash tied just like Soi Fon's with the kanji for 2 on one end.

Zan: His fathers features but while his eyes are blue like his fathers, they are shaped more round like his mothers. He also has long hair going to his waist with two wrapped braids, like Soi Fon, but without anything tied to the ends. His mask fragment looks like a row of five fangs lining across his forehead, pointing downward.
His uniform is also sleeveless and her wears a normal white sash tied off similar to Soi Fon's.

Gintsuki(Akata's Sister): Like a much smaller version of her mother without any hair decorations. Since she is not a shinigami she wears whatever she feels like but is often seen in a lap coat like any good member of the 12th.

Rinascita(Taka and Galgo's younger sister): She has the brown hair of her father and the blue eyes and sweet features of her mother. Her hollow mask are twin snakes wrapped around each other biting their own tails. She wears a bracelet like her mask on her left wrist.
Since she is sick all the time she wears the dreaded hospital robes.

If anyone can draw I would /love ya forever. I am an okay writer but I can't draw worth crap.