Chapter 75: CHAPTER 75
Ichigo who was now in his bankai form, continued his battle with Byakuya and at first, he was pressing on but later on they became evenly matched, and then finally Byakuya got the upper hand.
Byakuya almost finished him off when Ichigo's hollow side popped up and started to attack Byakuya, viciously dishing out attacks that were meant to kill. Hollow Ichigo finally got back the upper hand in the fight until Ichigo tore off the half-formed hollow mask on his face.
They then decided to go all final attack on each other as they both used their finishing moves.
After clashing final moves, blood spurted out of both their bodies.
"...Sor,ry Hisana… Sorry, Rukia…" Byakuya whispered to himself as he fell
[You failed… You were supposed to bring Rukia back, not get beaten up before you could even give chase] Houryu's voice appeared in his head as he fell to the floor.
[Doesn't matter in the end though… She'll still end up here in the end…] He continued.
'What does he mean by that… Renji already took her away after all.' Byakuya thought as he fell to the floor.
While Byakuya was thinking all this Orihime, Ishida, Ganju, and Chad arrived also with "Maki maki" from squad 11. They were all having their wholesome reunion and all, when Ishida finally noticed Houryu and almost freaked out.
"I-I-Ichigo… What is that!!?" Ishida screamed attracting everyone else's attention to Houryu who simply watched the show from atop the soukyoku stand.
"Oh… that's Houryu…" Ichigo answered back as he sat up with the help of Orihime.
"Wait… You mean to tell me that… that weird guy is the gigantic bird of fire over there watching us." Ishida asked Houryu disbelievingly while staying wary and on high alert like Chad and Maki Maki.
[Oi… shut yer trap loudmouth… you're the weird one with your wack-ass clothing design.] Houryu angrily said inside Ishida's head, freaking him out even more, as he just heard a voice inside his head.
"Who!" Ishida quickly begin looking around even more warily
[Over here idiot] Houryu said again before flapping his wings once and sending a wave of fire at them.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!! RUN!!! IT ATTACKED!!!"
But the fire dissipated and disappeared before reaching them.
[Now stop being so loud and go after your rescued princess… don't forget you're still in society] Houryu said in all of their minds this time, startling Orihime and Chad.
"What about you?" Ichigo asked
[You're thousands of years too early to start worrying about me kid] Houryu said to Ichigo.
[Now get a move along, shoo shoo] Houryu shooed them away from the mountain.
Meanwhile at Central 46…
Toshiro had arrived at the hall and seen the dead council members and was going into the inner chambers when he met Aizen and Gin, with an impaled Hinamori bleeding out a few meters behind them.
Toshiro in his anger used his Bankai and was ready to unleash hell on them when suddenly Aizen suddenly appeared behind him after cutting him down.
"How…" He gasped out as he fell to the floor bleeding heavily.
It was at this moment that Unohana and Isane arrived to see this happen and Unohana was able to confirm her guesses about Aizen's fake death.
Aizen commended them and told them how he faked his death and also about the power of his zanpakutou and also the fact that Tousen also was one of his underlings from the start.
Aizen finally used a sort of teleportation or quick travel spell, causing a long strip of white cloth to start spinning around them before suddenly emitting a bright light and disappearing.
On the soukyoku hill…
After Ichigo and them left to go down the mountain, Houryu waited for an arrival from a particular person and the sudden appearance of a blinding white light caused him to smile in his mind.
'Finally,' Houryu thought as his eyes gleamed.
Along with Aizen and Gin, Tousen and Renji who was carrying Rukia also appeared, though Renji and Rukia seemed to be especially surprised to find themselves back at soukyoku hill and even more shocked to find Aizen also there, as he was supposed to be dead.
Right at that moment Houryu and a lot of other people heard Kotetsu Isane's voice in their heads, telling them about everything they had found out about Aizen so far.
Aizen though did not get the memo and stepped forward to ask Renji to hand over Rukia, but Renji refused and then got Aizen's blade almost in his face the next second.
He quickly tried to avoid the attack, but he still got cut on his right arm, but he still pulled out his zanpakutou and got on guard, ignoring the pain form his injury and the blood dripping down his arm.
Renji still ended up fighting Aizen while trying to protect Rukia from him, but he couldn't hold on for long and a few seconds later he was kneeling on the ground with a giant cut across his upper body and his broken zanpakutou in his hand.
Aizen raised his sword to finally cut him down, but his sword ended up being blocked by Ichigo who arrived at the perfect moment to block the sword. They ended up teaming up to try to take down Aizen.
"HIGGA ZEKKOU" Renji shouted as the broken parts of his zanpakutou began to float and then flew in Aizen's direction with Ichigo running close behind to deal a finishing blow to Aizen after the first attack…
But it ended with Ichigo almost getting separated from the waist and Renji getting another huge gash on his chest.
Aizen then picked up Rukia and began the procedure to remove the hogyoku from within her soul, all the while explaining to the down-and-out Ichigo and Renji who were bleeding out and barely managing to hold on to their consciousness.
Aizen finally removed the hogyoku from Rukia's chest and then held her up towards Gin.
"Kill her… Gin"
"Well… it can't be helped" Gin said as he drew his zanpakutou.
"Shoot to kill… Shinsou!" Gin said as he stretched his sword towards Rukia.
*PUCHI*
Byakuya had suddenly appeared just in time to grab Rukia and protect her with his body, putting his body in the way of Gin's sword.
"Nii… sama…!" Rukia called out, shocked at what was currently happening. Byakuya looked at her with his cold eyes as he slowly fell, but suddenly a hand appeared and grabbed him by the shoulder as he fell.
"Mission complete… You ended up saving Rukia in the end."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone