Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast: Chapter 9

“Goat-face!” Ichigo screamed into the wind, desperately searching for his father in the biting snow. “Goat-face?” He paused, his eyes widening as he recognized the familiar form sprawled face-down into a snow bank. “Shit, old man, what were you thinking?”

Hoisting him up on Zangetsu’s back with a grunt, Ichigo paused as Isshin stirred and cracked one eye. “Is that my beautiful daughter Ichigo~?”

Ichigo scowled and tugged on Zangetsu’s reins to lean him forward. “Stupid father…”

He trudged through the deep snow all the way home, not noticing the large cat curled up in the hay. Pantera raised his head sleepily, yawning loudly and getting to his feet before trotting off to find his master.

Inside the warm house, Ichigo poured his father some tea while covering him with some blankets. Opening his eyes slightly, Isshin stared at his orange-haired son. “Ichigo?”

“Who the fuck do you think it would be?”

“I missed you Ichigoooo!!!” Isshin tried to throw his arms around his son but was quickly shoved back down.

“Idiot.”

“How did you escape, my wondrous daughter?”

“I’m your son idiot! And I didn’t escape, he set me free.” A small smile lit onto Ichigo’s face, which sent Isshin’s ‘protective daddy’ senses hay-wire.

“You didn’t have sex with him to make him let you go, did you?” Isshin asked, his eyes wide. “I knew you were gay!”

“Shut up! And no I didn’t!”

Both of them paused and turned as a sound came from one of the bags Ichigo brought with him. The flap opened and out popped Yachiru. “Hi Ichi-chan!”

“Yachiru! What are you doing here?”

Yachiru looked up at Ichigo with large, glistening eyes. “Why did you leave? Don’t you like me anymore?”

Ichigo melted at the cuteness and scooped the pink cup up. “Of course I like you, I just-”

He was abruptly interrupted by a loud knock at the door. Opening it, Ichigo frowned as he saw Doctor Gin standing there with his trade mark grin. “May I help you?” Ichigo said through gritted teeth, but it sounded more like ‘fuck off.’

“I’ve come to collect your father.” Gin’s smile widened even more and he stepped back to reveal a wooden wagon entitled ‘Asylum D’Loons.’

“Goat face?” Ichigo asked in confusion.

“Don’t worry, mademoiselle. We’ll take good care of him.” Poor Gin never saw the scowl-o-doom cross Ichigo’s face and in the next second Ichigo had kicked him so hard in the stomach he actually flew back a few feet.

“I’m a GUY damn it!!!”

“Ichigo?” Isshin came out of the house to see what the commotion was as Grimmjow stepped forward with a mischievous grin.

“Tell us again old man, just how big was the beast?”

“Well, he was...that is...enormous. I'd say at least eight, no more like ten feet!” Isshin flailed his arms around dramatically until Ichigo hit him on the back of the head to make him stop. “You’re so cruel to daddy!”

“Well you don’t get much crazier than that.” Grimmjow smirked, totally disregarding his long, deep conversations he has had with his cat.

“It’s true I tell you!”

Some orderlies stepped forward and snatched Isshin up, taking him to the wagon. “You assholes! You can’t do this!” Ichigo yelled with a scowl, his hands balled up into fists at his sides.

“Tsk, tsk. Poor Ichi, it’s a shame about your father.” Grimmjow said in fake concern, ignoring that he was the one who had Isshin taken away.

“Jerk!” Ichigo elbowed him in the stomach. “You know he’s not crazy, Grimmjow!”

“I might be able to clear up this little misunderstanding if…”

“If what?”

“If you marry me.” Grimmjow gave Ichigo’s tight behind a hard squeeze, making the orange-head yelp and hit him yet again.

“Pervert!” Dashing into the house, Ichigo snatched up the magic mirror and ran back outside. “My father may be crazy, but the beast is real!” Ichigo shouted before speaking at the mirror. “Show me Kenpachi!!!”

The mirror glowed green and then revealed Kenpachi who was moping about his lair, sharpening his various weapons.

“Is it dangerous?” One woman asked Ichigo frantically.

“Er, yeah, but the lazy bum would never come all the way down to the village.” Ichigo tried not to blush as he thought of Kenpachi and their last meeting.

“If I didn’t know any better, I would say you had feelings for this monster, Ichi.” Grimmjow said grumpily, eyeing Ichigo’s flushed cheeks.

“He’s not the monster Grimmjow, you are!”

“Well if that’s what gets you hot.” Grimmjow grabbed Ichigo and pulled him flush against his hard body. “But we can explore your kinks later, for now you have to stay out of the way.” With that he yanked the mirror out of Ichigo’s hands and threw him down into the cellar of the house along with his dad. “The beast will make off with your children! He'll come after them in the night. We're not safe until his head is mounted on my wall! I say we kill the beast!” Grimmjow raised the mirror above his head, raising cheers of ‘kill him’ from the crowd.

“We're not safe until he's dead!”

“He'll come stalking us at night!”

“Set to sacrifice our children to his monstrous appetite!”

“He'll wreak havoc on our village if we let him wander free!”

“So it's time to take some action, boys it’s time to follow me!” With a dramatic flourish, Grimmjow threw a torch into a haystack, ignoring the rules of fire safety and instantly creating a roaring bonfire. “Through the mist, through the woods, through the darkness and the shadows, it's a nightmare but its one exciting ride.” Grimmjow looked positively gleeful at the though of hunting the best, practically salivating. “Say a prayer, then we're there at the drawbridge of a castle, and there's something truly terrible inside.” Grimmjow failed to note that he himself was probably ‘something truly terrible,’ but Pantera put his two-cents in with an informative meow.

“It's a beast, he's got fangs, razor sharp ones. Massive paws, killer claws for the feast. Hear him roar, see him foam, but we're not coming home, ‘til he's dead, good and dead, kill the beast!” He turned to the mob crowd steadily growing bigger, his blue eyes glowing with insanity. “We’ll rid this village of the best, who’s with me?!”

A roar of agreement came from the crowd. “Light your torch, mount your horse!”

“Screw your courage to the sticking place!” Grimmjow yelled. There was a moment of awkward silence of the crowd trying to figure out what he meant before they continued.

“We're counting on Grimmjow to lead the way! Through a mist, to a wood, where within a haunted castle, something's lurking that you don't see every day!” Grimmjow leaps onto his horse which is pitch black and has eyes glowing like embers. He leads the mob through the town and out into the forest, where they start chopping trees in preparation for their assault on the castle. “It's a beast, one as tall as a mountain! We won't rest 'til he's good and deceased! Sally forth, tally ho, grab your sword, grab your bow, praise the lord and here we go!”

“We'll lay siege to his castle and bring back his head!” Grimmjow shouted. Beside him, Pantera wondered why Grimmjow didn’t use such higher-level vocabulary such as ‘siege’ when talking to him.

In the cellar, Ichigo was trying to force a window open. “Shit! I have to warn that perverted bastard, this is all my fault!”

“Don’t worry my beautiful daughter, we’ll think of something!” Isshin cooed and promptly got kicked in the face for calling his son ‘daughter’ once again.

Yachiru looks through the window, chewing the bottom of her cup-lip in thought as she tried to think of a way to let them free. Her eyes stopped on an odd contraption that had an ax poised deadly on it, as though at the ready to chop wood. “Ah!”

In the woods, the mob marches steadily towards Kenpachi’s castle, singing all the way because apparently that what one does in this type of situation. “We don't like, what we don't understand, it frankly scares us and this monster is mysterious at least! Bring your guns, bring your knives, save your children and your wives, we'll save our village and our lives, we'll kill the beast!”

Inside the castle, Yumichika paced, clearly pissed at a chance going by to have his beauty restored. “I knew it, I knew it was foolish to get our hopes up!”

“Maybe it would have been better if he never came at all.” Ikkaku pouted grumpily. All of the turn as Komamura comes in, barking excitedly. “Could it be?”

“Is it he?” Unohana asks as they peer out the window.

“Fuck! An invasion!” Ikkaku cursed.

“And none of them are beautiful.” Yumichika mourned with a sigh.

“And they have the mirror!” Unohana cried out as she saw Grimmjow holding the mirror that Yachiru gave Kenpachi, and didn’t have the heart to throw it away.

“Warn the master! If it’s a fight they want, we’ll be ready for them. Who’s with me?” The door slams shut as the objects scampered out and Yumichika gave a soft cry of surprise.

“Take whatever booty you can find.” Grimmjow says to the mob at the castle door. “But the beast is mine!”

“Hearts ablaze, banners high! We go marching into battle, unafraid, although the danger just increased!” The objects sang as they marched down the staircase.

“Raise the flag, sing the song, here we come, we're fifty strong and fifty Frenchmen can't be wrong, let's kill the beast!” The mob also sang, curiously in the same tune as the objects.

In Kenpachi’s lair, Unohana was briefing him nervously. “Excuse me, captain.”

“Leave me in peace.” Kenpachi said in an angst-ridden tone, still day dreaming about that last kiss Ichigo gave him.

“But sir! The castle is under attack!”

Downstairs, the enchanted objects were attempting to hold the door, but were pushed back every time the heavy battering ram crashed into it.

“This isn’t working!” Ikkaku grumbled under his breath, wishing he had his body back so he could just hack those ‘Frenchmen’ to pieces. “Wait, I know!” He grinned as a plan formed in his mind.

In Kenpachi’s rooms, Unohana was still trying to get him to do something, still unsuccessfully. “What shall we do, captain?”

“It doesn’t matter now. Let them come.”

Outside, the mob is still chanting “Kill the beast! Kill the beast!” They finally break in through the large doors and stumble inside the curiously quiet castle where the grand entrance is filled with an odd arrangement of furniture and various other items.

Pantera, ever wary, eyes a candlestick just as it shouts “Now!” The objects spring to life, battling with the humans that dared to encroach on their home.

LINE

So this chapter was quite a bit longer than the last one, I hope everyone enjoyed it!!! Next one if going to include the big battle.