Hot Like Fire, Cool Like Ice (Bleach)

[Hayate]

This is a Bleach story I've been working on since early February. Finally managed to put the finishing touches on it, and I thought I'd post it here to garner some feedback before submitting it to FF.net. I warn you, though -- it's NOT short (about 26 pages in an average MS Word file). If the length doesn't bother you, enjoy and let me know what you think.

[Hayate]

Long ago, over 500 years prior to Soul Society’s present times, there existed a Soul Reaper by the name of Nagi. As one of the higher-ranked members of the Gotei 13, as well as a descendant of one of Soul Society’s four noble houses, he was well respected amongst the citizenry.

As do all Soul Reapers, Nagi wielded a zanpakutou. Its name was Izayoi. And the two were indeed a formidable adversary against the Hollows. They were said to have slain nearly 100 Hollows every 10 days. But as time passed, and the names Nagi and Izayoi were made second-nature, Nagi sought to become stronger. He desired power. In an attempt to fulfill his wish, Izayoi bound her soul with that of her wielder Nagi.

Thus, the destructive and now legendary power known as “Izanagi” was born.

With newfound strength at his fingertips, Nagi led a battalion of 100 Soul Reapers and marched on Hueco Mundo with the intent of diminishing the Hollows’ population to the point at which they won’t pose a threat to either Soul Society or the real world. However, during an all-out battle between Nagi and a Vasto Lorde, the power of Izanagi grew -- so much so that it went out of control and created a distortion in space-time. Nagi’s and Izayoi’s bodies and souls were completely consumed.

The spatial deformation that resulted from this phenomenon ripped the power of Izanagi into two halves and imprisoned them within dimensional limbo, where they would lie in dormancy.

To this day, the Izanagi legend has become but a distant memory, lost amid the annals of time.

Hot Like Fire, Cool Like Ice

I was…dreaming. At least, I think I was. It seemed so real. Like a far-off memory. I was…inside a car. Rear passenger side. It was moving. 30, maybe 40 miles per hour. A little girl was sitting next to me. A woman was in the front passenger’s seat. A man was driving. They looked…happy. …Wait. I remember this. That was my sister sitting next to me. And…in the front passenger’s seat was my mother. And the man driving was my father. We were on our way to the amusement park. Yeah. I remember it clearly now. My mother was telling me not to overexert myself like I usually do. And my sister was going on and on about cotton candy. “Typical Yuna.”, my father said. And we laughed. …But then…the laughter stopped. “Look out!”, my mother shouted. The car went left and right. My sister was screaming. The car swerved to the right. Off the bridge. And into the river. Everything was watery at first…but then, it all went black…

“…Yuji!”

“…”

“Yuji!!!”

Finally stirred from his slumber, Soul Reaper Yuji Sakuraba awakens to the sight of his twin sister hovering over him. With a boisterous yawn, he greets, “…Morning, Yuna.”

“‘Morning’!? It’s after sundown! This is the third time I’ve caught you sleeping while on patrol!”

The drowsy Yuji finally rises to his feet. From the looks of his and Yuna’s surroundings, he had apparently dozed off on a rooftop in Karakura Town. Like Yuna had mentioned, she and Yuji were on Hollow patrol. Abrasively running his hand through his hair, Yuji says to his annoyed sibling, “Oh, don’t get your underwear in a bunch. It’s not as though any Hollows actually show up during these patrols.”

“Um… Yeah. They do. While you’re sleeping.”

“Then let the others handle it while I catch some Z’s.”

“Ugh! Must you always be so goddamn lazy!? Before you know it, you’re gonna end up like Lieutenant Omaeda!”

“Alright, I get it, so shut up already. …Sheesh…”

Yuji’s twin Yuna is forced to sigh heavily at her brother’s laziness. “Seriously, Yuji, why are you always so--?” Just then, Yuna’s rant is cut short when a high-pitched beeping noise emanates from within her uniform. “Hmm?” Reaching into her uniform, she pulls out what appears to be a cell phone. “My soul phone’s beeping like crazy…!” On the phone’s small screen, Yuna notices a series of large dots located to the northwest of hers and Yuji’s position. “Holy crap! It’s one…two…four! Four Menos have just popped up near the Kurosaki Clinic!”

Grasping his zanpakutou’s hilt, Yuji replies, “Alright. Let’s move.”, and sets out with his sister using shunpo (flash step).

Just a couple of yards outside the clinic belonging to the Kurosaki family, a group of Soul Reapers is seen doing battle against the four Menos that had appeared. Though they were merely of the Gillian class, they were formidable enough that the Soul Reaper squadron put up a sweat. “Troop 3, attack from the west!”, calls out the squadron’s leader. “Troop 6, move in from the north! …Where are Yuji and Yuna Sakuraba of Troop 4!?”

“We’re here, commander!”, says Yuna, as she and Yuji burst on the scene mere moments later.

“Alright, good! Yuji, back up Troop 5 with the Menos on the far left. Yuna, you assist Troop 6 with that one over there! Hold them off until reinforcements get here!”

“Yes, sir!”

The Menos’ bellowing roars echo through the night sky. A roar that could only be heard by individuals with high spiritual awareness, but an ear-piercing roar nonetheless. The stoic expressions of their masks exuded their usual Hollow-esque mindlessness. One of the Soul Reapers of Troop 6 draws his zanpakutou and, with a firm, loud kiai, cuts deeply into the massive Hollow’s flesh. But the wound quickly melts away, as all others before it had done due to the Menos’ high-speed regenerative abilities. “Dammit! This isn’t working!”

All of a sudden, the side of the Menos’ head would be struck by an incoming stream of white lightning.

“Need some help, boys?”, says Yuna confidently upon entering the fray. Her right index and middle fingers give off faint traces of smoke from a recently cast kidou spell.

“Y-Yuna-san!”

Naturally, the towering Hollow was none too happy about being struck by spirit magic. Turning its head to face Yuna, it opens its massive maw and fires her way a concentrated blast of red energy.

“A Cero…!” Using shunpo, Yuna jumps out of the way of the Hollow’s blast. Appearing to the Menos’ left, she points her right index and middle fingers forward again, preparing another kidou spell. “Bakudou #30: Shitotsu Sansen!”

From Yuna’s own spiritual power, three beams of light are formed. The beams converge and strike at the Menos from three equilateral points, forming a tight triangular restraint. With Yuna’s kidou, the Menos was now unable to move.

“Now! Watch and learn, boys!” Reaching behind her, Yuna unsheathes her zanpakutou in a fashion similar to her captain: Soi Fon of 2nd Division. The zanpakutou was a ninjatou with a blade slightly longer than that of a regular ninjatou. Its hand guard was shaped like a rhombus, and the hilt was bright-red. “This is how you take down a Menos!”, exclaims the girl with sapphire hair. Pointing the blade forward and grasping the hilt with both hands, she calls out her zanpakutou’s release command:

“Illuminate the infinite heavens! Amaterasu!”

At Yuna’s command, her zanpakutou’s blade burns brightly with the white, orange, and red colors of flames. “Hehehe!”

The on-looking Soul Reaper troop members were in awe of this. Watching Yuna release her zanpakutou was always a sight to behold. “Wow… There it is… The only Fire-type zanpakutou in Soul Society other than Commander-General Yamamoto-Genryuusai’s Ryujin Jakka… ‘Amaterasu’…!”

“Ready to go, ‘Ama’…?”, asks Yuna to her zanpakutou affectionately. “…Alright! Let’s do it!” With the burning-hot blade in hand, Yuna charges forward. Her spiritual power propelling her forward, she turns her weapon on its side and runs the blade through the Menos’ flesh. The mighty Hollow lets out an anguished howl, as this wound made by a released zanpakutou would not be so easily healed. “Hah! Ya like that!? Let’s see how ya like this one!” Distancing herself from the Menos, Yuna brandishes Amaterasu and swings it several times with full force, bombarding the Hollow with a multitude of arcs of fiery energy. Both weakened and angered by this assault, the Menos thrashes its body about furiously, inevitably releasing itself from the grips of Yuna’s spell. “Uh-oh…!”

Once again facing toward the blue-haired girl, the Hollow opens its jaws and fires at her a second Cero -- twice as powerful as the first.

Judging from the sheer size of the blast, Yuna knew she wouldn’t be able to get far away enough to evade it. “!!!”

“YUNA-SAN!!!”

Yuna’s eyes go wide with shock when a Soul Reaper uses shunpo to jump in front of her to take the brunt of the blast for her. “Naoto!”

The Soul Reaper Naoto’s uniform would be heavily singed and his flesh badly burned as a result of the Menos’ Cero. “Heh… Hehehe… Well, that was stupid, wasn’t it…?”

“Are you alright!?”

“I’ll be fine… Take ‘im out, Yuna-san…!”

“…Hmph!” With a nod of agreement, Yuna propels herself forward once again. With her zanpakutou in one hand, she draws power to the palm of her free hand. “Hadou #11: Tsuzuri Raiden!” White-hot electricity begins to course through her fingers. Then, as she forcefully connects her hand with the Menos’ mask, she sends a powerful electric current through its body, both damaging its internal organs and stunning it momentarily. “Now to finish this!” Rising up, Yuna grasps her blade’s hilt with both hands once more and, with a swift downward motion, tears the Hollow’s mask in half, ending its life. “…Whew…”

The bystander Soul Reapers cheer loudly for Yuna’s victory. “Alright! Way to go, Yuna-san!”

Turning back to face her adoring fans, Yuna motions to them the traditional V-shaped sign of victory with her fingers. “Hehehe!”

Meanwhile, several of yards away, Yuji faces off against his own Menos. The mindless Hollow hurled Cero after Cero upon the boy with indigo hair. Using shunpo, he avoided the blasts effortlessly. And with each Cero the Menos fired, its overall energy lessened. For a Hollow typically more powerful than regular Hollows, Yuji found himself bored with the battle. “…How pathetic…”, sighs the boy uninterestedly. Grasping the hilt of his sword at his hip, Yuji draws his zanpakutou as well. Its blade was that of a standard katana; its hand guard had a countless number of tips, giving it the shape of a snowflake, and the hilt was cerulean blue. Then, holding the blade out at his side, Yuji whispers:

“Watch over the starlit nights…! Tsukuyomi…!”

And then, in a style similar to Byakuya Kuchiki’s Senbonzakura, Yuji’s weapon breaks into billions of icy particles that rain down from the sky like snowflakes. The Menos was unfazed by this, as it opens up its mouth to fire off yet another Cero. Yuji, however, had other plans for the one-track-minded Hollow. Lifting his hand up, the boy points his palm forward and invokes, “…Freeze.”

In that instant, the billions of particles that made up Yuji’s zanpakutou converge upon the Menos and freeze it within a dense layer of ice.

Finally, turning his hand over palm-face-up, Yuji puts his fingers together and snaps. The sound echoes through the air, and the Menos’ body shatters like glass, mask and all. The particles from Yuji’s Tsukuyomi return and reform into a blade, and Yuji slides it back into its scabbard.

“They truly are amazing, aren’t they?”, says a Soul Reaper to the commander.

“Mm-hmm.”, replies the commander with his arms folded. “The Fire-type Amaterasu and the Ice-type Tsukuyomi… Twin zanpakutou wielded by twin Soul Reapers… It’s almost poetic. It’s a wonder those two haven’t been promoted to being seated officers by now.”

“…Aah! C-Commander, look!”

“W-What the hell!?”

At that moment, high above the Soul Reaper troops, the commander and his subordinate catch an eyeful of a dimensional vortex literally tearing the sky open. A Garganta opens up, and from the other side emerges a group of 10 to 20 Gillian-class Menos.

“There’s…so many! Where are they coming from!?”

“Dammit! Where are those reinforcements!?”

Just then… “‘Sprinkled on the bones of the beast! Sharp tower, red crystal, steel ring! Move and become the wind, stop and become the calm! The sound of warring spears fills the empty castle!’ Hadou #63: Raikouhou!”

And in a wide-range array of yellow light, over half of the group of Menos is incinerated in an instant by a blast of thunderous energy.

“Where’d that come from!?” Looking toward the rear, the Soul Reaper troops see that several more 2nd Division troops had arrived, led by Captain Soi Fon. “Reinforcements are finally here! It’s about time!”

Yuna was awestruck by the arrival of her captain. “Oh! It’s Captain Soi Fon! She’s here!”, says the fanatical girl.

“Spread out and cover them!”, commands Soi Fon to her subordinates. “Leave not a single one alive!”

“Yes, Captain!”

“Ahhh… Look at the way she commands such obedience… It’s so cool…”, gushes Yuna with stars clouding her pupils.

Yuji wasn’t so swayed as his simpleminded twin. “I don’t see the big deal. She’s just like any other captain in the Gotei 13.”

“Are you nuts!? Captain Soi Fon’s so hard-working, so down-to-earth, so strong-willed… She’s nothing like that fat slob of a lieutenant of hers…”

“If you like her so much, why don’t you marry her…?”

“Oh, Yuji, sometimes you can be so…! Arrrgghhh!!!”

~*~*~*~

Soul Society. The following day.

All was calm and peaceful inside the Seireitei this afternoon. The skies of Soul Society were filled with bright shades of blue. The thin cirrus clouds that hovered overhead resembled the contrails of flying aircraft. Small troops of Soul Reapers jogged lightly through the streets, running their daily drills perhaps.

One such Soul Reaper, however, had no interest in building up a sweat.

Within his and his sister’s quarters of the Gotei 13’s 2nd Division, Yuji Sakuraba is seen lounging on a couch with his hands behind his head and his legs crossed. As he silently snores, the indigo-haired boy’s mind drifts aimlessly in dreamland.

Where am I now? I feel light. Warm. Am I dreaming again? Is it the same one as before? …No. It was different. I was by myself this time, wandering the streets of Karakura. So many people, but…none of them noticed me. Excuse me? Can anyone help me? I’m trying to find my sister and parents. No one even so much as looked at me. It was like I didn’t exist. I was surrounded by a whole bunch of people, but I couldn’t have felt more alone. I called out Yuna’s name, but she wasn’t there. I felt cold. There was a sharp pain in my chest. …The car accident. That’s right. My family and I must’ve… Was I really dead? I didn’t feel dead. Then again, I didn’t feel anything. …I felt like I was being watched. But who? Yuna? Mom? Dad? Behind me, towering high above me, was a monster with black flesh and a white skeleton mask. Its jaw hung open a little, its tongue dripped hot saliva at my feet, and its breath stank. This monster was going to devour me. …I turned around and ran for my life, and the monster followed close behind, its loud stomps shaking the ground I ran on. I already died once; I didn’t want to go through it a second time. I cried desperately for help, but no one heard me. No one even saw the monster chasing me. Was this my end? Being lunch for an ugly beast with a mask was my fate? What about all that talk of going to Heaven? The afterlife? Was it all a lie? I tripped over a rock and fell to the ground. This was it. I was going to die. Again. Clenching my eyes closed and curling up into a ball, I shouted out “HELP!” one last time. And then…before I knew what was happening…I heard the sound of a sword being drawn, and the monster in the mask had vanished. “Are you alright?”, I heard a voice ask me. Looking up, I saw a woman in an all-black uniform hovering over me. I opened my mouth to speak, but the words wouldn’t come. The woman in the black uniform smiled at me and said, “It’s okay. Don’t worry, you’re safe now.” Then, she rose up what looked like a sword and pressed the pommel firmly against my forehead. I was bathed in a warm, white light. And then…just before I vanished…I could swear I saw snowflakes…

“…W-Whoa!”

At that moment, Yuji’s sweet dreams would come to quite an abrupt end when the couch on which he was slumbering is tilted and flipped over onto its ‘belly’, generating a loud thud as it lands. As he crawls out from underneath the upside-down couch, Yuji meets his ‘doting’ sister eye-to-eye. “Dammit, Yuna…”, the groggy teen starts. His expression was as empty as usual, but his narrowed brows disclosed his anger. “I can’t take a nap without you breaking one of my bones…?”

“Oh, don’t start!”, roars the girl with azure hair. “Whenever we’re on standby, all you do is sleep!”

“Standby’s boring… What do you expect me to do?”

“Well, there’s other stuff to do besides sleeping 18 hours out of the day! You know what they say about people who sleep too much! Just look at Lieutenant Kotetsu!”

“…I had the dream again.”, mutters Yuji under his breath, suddenly changing the subject.

“…The one with the Soul Reaper girl who saved your life?”

“Yeah. It’s so weird. I remember what she said to me that day perfectly. Her voice was so kind…so motherly… But no matter how hard I try, I can’t remember her face.”

“Is that why you sleep all the time? So you can remember?”

“…”

Yuna opens her mouth to exhale a sigh. Despite her twin’s reasons for sleeping so often, they were no excuse for being a shut-in. Reaching down, she grabs Yuji by the wrist. “Alright, c’mon. Let’s get going.”

“Going? Going where?”

“…We’re taking a little walk.”

…And a walk the siblings indeed take. Side by side, the blue-haired twins stroll aimlessly about the inner workings of the Seireitei. The light of the sun shining brightly in the sky above shimmered off of the white labyrinth-like walls that lined the court, giving the area a positive aura. As their fellow Soul Reapers pass by, Yuji and Yuna amble up and down the Seireitei. Reaching her arms up, Yuna takes a refreshing stretch. “Mmm! Well, Yuji? Doesn’t it feel great to be outside? To breathe the fresh, crisp afternoon air? To watch the hell butterflies flutter past your face?”

“…I guess.”, replies the apathetic Yuji. “I mean, if you like that kind of stuff.”

“…You’ve changed, Yuji. You were so outgoing when you were a kid. You played catch with Daddy all the time, you loved to ride your bike, and you’d always try out for the softball team even though the coach turned you down time after time. You don’t even smile anymore.”

“Yeah, well…dying and nearly being Hollow food does stuff to you. At least you’re still the same. Still the center of attention as always. Practically all the guys in the squad think you’re a goddess. That Naoto guy worships the freakin’ ground you walk on.”

“Heh. What can I say? Not all of us are blessed with dazzling looks, extraordinary talent in using kidou, and a zanpakutou that can roast a Hollow in 0.7 seconds. Hahaha!”

“…Not to mention an ego the size of a blimp…”

“What was that?!?”

At that moment… “Well, well, well. If it isn’t my two favorite Soul Reaper prodigies.”

Glancing ahead, Yuji and Yuna spot another Soul Reaper approaching them. The man had spiky, unkempt dishwater-blond hair and a sloppily worn Gotei 13 uniform: he kept his kosode open and wasn’t wearing a shitagi underneath, causing his chest to remain exposed. From the man’s right hand, he’s seen twirling his zanpakutou around and around.

Yuna could feel her stomach turn at the sight of this physically unappealing Soul Reaper. “Oh, great… It’s him…”

Before this third Soul Reaper, Yuji stops walking and bows courteously to him. “Good day to you, 7th Seat Yasuaki, sir.”

Standing rather proudly before the twin Soul Reapers was 2nd Division’s 7th Seat, Akira Yasuaki. “Heh. Glad to see that one of you still knows how to treat their superiors with respect.”, says Akira somewhat cheekily.

“Tch! Like you even deserve respect…‘Aki-Aki’!”

Akira’s left eye twitches at the sound of his Yuna-given nickname. “Dammit, chick, I told you to quit calling me that! It might’ve been cute back at the Soul Reaper Academy, but now it’s just annoying!”

“Aw, it doesn’t matter how much time passes, 7th Seat Yasuaki, sir; you’ll always be the same ‘Aki-Aki’ I picked on during our Academy days. Hehehe.”

Akira was considerably angered by the fact that, although he was older than Yuna, she addressed him like he was a little kid. “Hmph. Better watch yourself, blue-hair, or you’re liable to end up with one of these.”, the dirty-blond says, moving his kosode to reveal the large scar on the right side of his chest.

“!!!” It was probably the tenth time Yuji was shown the scar, but it was still shocking to look at.

“Yeah, that’s it. Take a good look, kid. This is what happens to guys who get too big for their britches -- they end up as fodder for the Hollows to sharpen their nails on.”

“…Yes, sir…”

“Oh, give it a rest already, ‘Aki-Aki’. You must’ve shown that stupid scar to everyone in the Seireitei by now.” It’s at that moment when Yuna notices the katana dangling from Akira’s right-hand fingers. “And what are you doing swinging your zanpakutou around like that? You could hurt someone. And you know damn well that Gotei 13 members can only draw their zanpakutou within Seireitei walls when a state of emergency’s been declared.”

“Well, aren’t you a good little rule-follower? …I can do with my zanpakutou whatever I please, whenever I please. I’m a seated officer, and you’re just a lowly grunt fresh out of the Academy.”

“‘Lowly’?!? Who are you calling ‘lowly’?!?”

And like that, yet another heated argument erupts between Yuna and her old Academy friend. Fifth one this week. Yuji couldn’t help but sigh heavily at the two’s immaturity.

Just then, the blaring sounds of bells and emergency sirens blanket the Seireitei.

The arrival of these loud, shrill sounds interrupts Yuna’s and Akira’s squabble. “Huh…!? W-What’s going on…!?”

“ATTENTION, ALL ACTIVE GOTEI 13 MEMBERS!!!”, a soft male voice announces across the court. “HOLLOWS HAVE BEEN SIGHTED IN JUNRINAN DISTRICT OF WEST RUKONGAI!!! TARGETS ARE CONFIRMED TO BE MENOS GRANDE!!! ACTING DIVISIONS ARE ADVISED TO EXERCISE CAUTION IF CHOOSING TO ENGAGE!!! I REPEAT, HOLLOWS HAVE BEEN SIGHTED IN JUNRINAN…!!!”

“Hollows!?”, gasps Yuna. “In Rukongai!?”

“Junrinan isn’t too far from here… Yuna! Let’s get going!”, exclaims Yuji to his twin.

“Right!”, Yuna replies, making for the west gate with shunpo.

Needless to say, the citizenry of Junrinan and its neighboring districts was in a significant state of panic with the appearance of Hollows in their peaceful city. The hundreds of souls who dwelled in this place run for dear life and trample on top of each other in their effort to escape the Hollows’ destruction. The Menos’ earsplitting howls echo across the skies of Soul Society, and almost no one was safe from the devastation caused by their Cero blasts. Members of several Gotei 13 divisions -- ranging from the kidou specialists of 5th Division to the bloodthirsty swordsmen of 11th Division -- had burst onto the scene to confront the black-fleshed monsters with masks, or at the very least hold them off until their captains arrived to finish the job. Members of 4th Division were less concerned with satisfying their hunger for Hollow blood and more with evacuating the resident souls and treating the wounds of the injured.

Down on the crowded streets of Junrinan, a mother soul and her 7-year-old son are seen running for their lives amongst the frantic commotion. But as the uproar intensifies, the mother’s and son’s grip on each other’s hands break, and the child stumbles over onto the ground. “Mama!”, the boy calls out to his mother, his eyes welling with tears of fear.

“Oh, no! My Shinya!”, calls back the mother, noticing her fallen child.

And as bad luck would have it, a Cero blast strikes at the ground several yards to the boy’s rear and travels along the ground in the boy’s direction at a rate of a yard a second, reducing everything in its path to ruin.

“Shinya!”

And in that split instant, who should come to young Shinya’s rescue and snatch him away from the jaws of death than Yuna? Zooming in with shunpo, the girl with sapphire hair picks the boy up and escapes in time to avoid the Cero’s field of destruction. Yuna would return Shinya into the arms of his loving mother immediately afterwards. “There you go! Now get out of here! Quickly!”

With a look of gratitude and a firm nod, the mother soul turns back around and flees from the district without a moment’s hesitation.

Then, swiftly spinning back around, Yuna points her fingers toward the nearby Menos and invokes, “Hadou #4: Byakurai!”, striking the Hollow with a violent bolt of white lightning and forcing it to back off before it had the opportunity to fire off another Cero. “Dammit! How the hell did Menos infiltrate Soul Society without anybody noticing!?” Drawing her straight-bladed zanpakutou, she shouts, “Illuminate the infinite heavens! Amaterasu!”, commanding her blade to shine like fire.

Meanwhile, standing atop the building next to Yuna, Yuji, having already released his zanpakutou prior to entering, points the palm of his hand toward a Menos and proclaims, “Slash, Tsukuyomi…!” At this proclamation, the individual particles that made up his zanpakutou harden and slash through the nearest Menos’ flesh like blades.

Following this, in jumps Yuna. As she propels herself through the air like the rocket, her fiery blade burns its brightest. And with a blinding-fast sword slash, she cuts the Menos’ mask clean in half, reducing it to nothing but black dust. “Heh! One down!”

Just then, the Menos left standing alter their attack pattern. Coming together into close quarters, the Hollows turn their heads inward and focus their energies on a single point. Then, as they open their massive jaws, a sphere of pure yellow energy materializes before them and slowly expands in size.

The Soul Reaper squadrons watching this were utterly dumbstruck. “W-What kind of Cero is that…?!?”

A focused Cero between multiple Menos. A wicked technique that would later be given the name “Cero Sincrético”. With their energies combined, the group of Hollows fires off its accumulated energy in the form of a colossal sphere that tears through everything in its path. Only a captain-level Soul Reaper would be able to deflect something of that magnitude. The lower-ranked Soul Reapers retreat out of the Cero’s line of fire and look on as the energy sphere rips viciously across Junrinan.

One such Soul Reaper, however -- Yuna -- was too frightened to move away. “…”

“YUNA!!!”

“!!!” Before the blue-haired girl realized what was happening, the weight of her body is forcefully shifted to the side when Yuji shoves her out of the way of the energy blast.

At that point, it was Yuji’s turn to freeze up with fear. Upon pushing his sister aside, he watches at the synchronized Cero blast stares him in the face and inches closer. “…!”

…Then came the explosion.

The collision between Yuji’s positive spirit energy and the Cero’s negative energy resulted in an explosion of immense proportions. Emerging from the cloud of smoke, Yuji’s body plummets lifelessly to the debris-coated ground below.

“YUJI!!!!!”

Crashing harshly onto the district ruins, Yuji was motionless, his uniform heavily singed and his body covered in burns and bruises. His scorched indigo hair hung over his eyes.

Hovering in the skies above the battered body of her broken brother, Yuna sheds tears of horror and guilt. “…Yuji…”

Unmoved by the girl twin’s watered eyes, the Menos continue their advancement upon the Seireitei.

But then the onlookers of the battle -- the retreating souls of Rukongai, the Gotei 13 Soul Reapers, and even the Menos themselves -- would be treated to a most surprising sight. Around Yuna’s body, a powerful aura builds in a style similar to Captain Soi Fon’s own shunko (flash cry), except this aura of Yuna’s glows a bright shade of azure. The teenage girl’s hair begins to sway to the beat of an inexistent wind and, as she turns to face the Menos, the kanji for “i” (伊) and “ja” (邪) appear in her left eye.

Still, the Menos would not cease their advancement. Deeming Yuna and her new power to be a threat, however, they open us their mouths and fire a series of individual Cero.

“Amaterasu…!”, calls out Yuna. With a swift shunpo, the girl disappears. A streak of red left in the wake on Yuna’s zanpakutou whips through the air, and as Yuna reappears at the Menos’ rear, a single Menos falls to its death, its mask having been rent clean in two.

Yuna’s movements were too quick for even the other Soul Reapers to track. “Wow…!”

Vanishing again, Yuna appears above the remaining Hollows this time, swiping her blade vigorously downward to slice through another Menos’ mask with a crescent of fiery spirit energy.

The last Menos’ standing, not to be defeated so easily, lifts its head and fires a Cero up to the sky.

Disappearing once more, Yuna reappears directly in front of the Menos, grasping the hilt of her flaming sword with both hands. “Die…!!!”, the blue-haired girl snarls, driving her zanpakutou deep into the Hollow’s mask. The Hollow lets out a fierce cry of pain as its mask and body dissipate into nothingness.

With the final Menos’ fall, Yuna lowers her blade, and her bright azure aura fades away. The Soul Reapers who bore witness to Yuna’s amazing feat cheer for her.

One such Soul Reaper, having watched the battle from a Rukongai rooftop, doesn’t cheer, but instead crosses his arms in bewilderment. “So… It’s just like Aizen said… The power of Izanagi is real… Hehehe… At this rate, I’ll become a Vizard for sure…”

With the battle now at an end, Yuna tends to her injured brother. Returning to the ground, she kneels down and takes Yuji into her arms. “Yuji! Yuji, are you okay!?”

“…”

“C’mon, Yuji, say something! Please!”

Finally moving his lips, Yuji begins muttering in a feeble tone. “…Yu…na…”

“Ah! Don’t worry, Yuji, I’m here! You’ll be just fine, okay?”

Weakly gritting his teeth, the battle-worn Yuji growls, “…I…hate Hollows…”

[Hayate]

Some number of hours after the slaying of the Soul-Society-invading Menos, the resident souls of Rukongai and Soul Reapers who were wounded in battle -- one Yuji Sakuraba included -- were transported to the infirmary in 4th Division headquarters. In the ruins of Rukongai’s Junrinan district, reconstruction had already begun.

In the 4th Division sickbay, Yuji lies in a hospital-like bed, coated by the bed sheets from his shoulders to his feet. His face had about it a calm expression, as if the burns, bruises, and other physical trauma he had suffered that day had been all but forgotten.

Standing at his bedside was his sister Yuna, ridden by the guilt of causing her brother to bear such pain. If she hadn’t frozen up in the face of the Menos’ synchronized Cero, Yuji wouldn’t have had to take one for the team, she thought.

Just then, the door several feet to Yuna’s right slides open, and in enters 4th Division’s 7th Seat Hanatarou Yamada, the Soul Reaper in charge of Yuji’s hospitalization. “Oh. Hello, Yuna-san. I didn’t realize you were still here.”

“Hey, Hanatarou.”, Yuna greets softly. “…Is he…?”

“He’ll be just fine.”, assures Hanatarou with a kind smile. “I’ve been in charge of your brother’s hospitalization several times, Yuna-san, and to be honest with you, I’ve never seen anyone recover from their injuries faster than he has. He’ll be up and about before you know it.”

“I see… Thanks, Hanatarou.”

“What about you, Yuna-san? Are you feeling alright?”

“Hmm? Yeah, I feel fine. A little tired maybe, but other than that, I’m okay. Why do you ask?”

“I watched your battle against the Menos today. You showed a kind of power I’ve never seen before. What happened?”

“I’m…not sure really. After seeing Yuji get hit by that Cero, I just…lost it. Like all of my spiritual power came pouring out of me all at once. I dunno what it was.”

“…Perhaps I might shed some light on the situation.”, a gentle female voice originating from the door says.

Turning to face said door, Yuna and Hanatarou find themselves joined by a beautiful woman with calm blue eyes and long black hair tied into a single braid: Retsu Unohana. “C-Captain Unohana…!”, says Hanatarou upon seeing his captain enter the room. “You know what the power inside Yuna-san is?”

“Yes.”, replies the warm-faced captain of 4th Division. “Although I hadn’t thought I’d ever see this power again… The power of Izanagi.”

“Iza…nagi?”, Yuna repeats hesitantly.

“…It was over 5 centuries ago.”, Retsu begins. “A Soul Reaper from 11th Division named Nagi. He was quite the prodigy -- much like you and your brother, Yuna. He excelled in almost every field there was, and graduated from the Soul Reaper Academy at the top of his class. Not too long after that, Nagi met his zanpakutou spirit…Izayoi. The two were a formidable force. Had Nagi pushed himself just a little further and achieved Bankai, he could’ve easily made captaincy and attained the title of ‘Kenpachi’. …But…”

“…”

“…I should’ve seen the signs. As time passed and Nagi’s reputation grew, so did his lust for power. He didn’t care about just achieving Bankai; he wanted to be the strongest Soul Reaper in all of Soul Society. So, through some method or another, Nagi had melded his soul with his zanpakutou’s. He wanted more power, and he acquired it -- the power that would later be called ‘Izanagi’.

“…”

“The captains of the Gotei 13 at that time were wary of the power Nagi had acquired at first. Commander-General Yamamoto-Genryuusai even considered the option of locking Nagi away in the Nest of Maggots. But some of the other captains argued that Nagi could be as a weapon against the Hollows -- a trump card. …Soon after that, Nagi approached me and asked me to help him commission a squadron of Soul Reapers to invade Hueco Mundo with the intent of ‘depopulating the Hollows’. I still have no clue what could’ve possessed Nagi to come up with an idea. The imbalance between the worlds it would cause… I tried to dissuade him, but he refused to listen to reason. …And then…”

“…Captain Unohana…”

“I have only myself to blame… If only I’d done more to change his mind…he wouldn’t have had to…”

“It’s not your fault, Captain.”, Yuna encourages the despondent Retsu. “11th Division has always been all brawn and no brains. Hehehe.”

“So, Captain…how did this ‘Izanagi’ power end up inside Yuna?”

“Ah, yes. My apologies. Mind you, this is just speculation based on data analyzed by the Research and Development Institute, but when the power of Izanagi consumed Nagi and Izayoi, it’s believed that Izanagi was split into two halves by the time-space anomaly it generated, then it went into a sort of dormant state within the Severed World. And when Yuna came to Soul Society via soul burial, one of Izanagi’s two halves attached itself to her while she was traveling through the Severed World because their spiritual signatures were the same. …And if one half is inside Yuna…”

“…then the other half must be inside Yuji.”

“Listen to me, Yuna. This is a truly dangerous power. In fact, if it were up to me, I’d rid you of it completely. But since that is not within the realm of my ability to do, I can only offer to you these words. This power destroyed Nagi and Izayoi, and if you aren’t careful, it will destroy you as well. Promise me that you won’t use it under any circumstances.”

“…Understood. I promise.”

Curling her mouth into a relieved smile, Retsu continues, “Good. I’m glad to hear that. …Come along, Hanatarou. The other injured need tending to.”

“R-Right. Coming, Captain.”

With her eyes focused on Hanatarou, Yuna watches as he and Captain Unohana exit the room. “…”

“…Are they gone now?”

“Aah!” With the entrance of yet another unexpected voice, Yuna turns her head to see that Yuji had opened his eyes. “Yuji! H-How long have you been awake!?”

“Since you and ‘Tarou’ started chatting it up with Captain Unohana. …Where am I?”

“You’re in the 4th Division relief ward. You’ve been unconscious for over 3 hours.”

“…Oh, right. The Menos attack on Rukongai.”

“…I’m so sorry, Yuji.”

“Hmm? Why are you apologizing?”

“When I saw that huge Cero coming at me, I just froze. Because of me, you…”

Shifting his head a little, Yuji gazes straight up toward the ceiling. “…I wasn’t ready to lose you, Yuna. Mom and Dad aren’t here with us. In this world…we’re all we have. …I didn’t…want to be alone…”

“…” Yuna could feel her eyes watering again. Despite everything that’s happened, Yuji still held his sister as his most precious treasure. He was right. Here in the afterlife, all they had was each other. “…Thanks, Yuji…”, the sapphire-haired girl whispers as her tears start to fall.

~*~*~*~

Some number of hours later, the sun looking over the vastness of Soul Society had finally descended over the horizon, blanketing the soul-inhabited world with night.

Still lying in his hospital bed in the 4th Division infirmary, Yuji lies fast asleep, softly inhaling and exhaling air through his nose.

At his bedside, Yuna is seen, also sleeping soundly. Using her forearms as a pillow, she lay with her head on Yuji’s bed, letting out long, soft sigh-like snores. The blue-haired girl was apparently committed to staying by her brother’s side during his hospitalization. The expression on her face indicated that she was having a pleasant dream.

Just then, a strange ringing sound echoes through the air. They resembled wind chimes.

Stirred from her slumber by the eerie sound, Yuna lifts her head up and rubs dust from her eyes. “Hmm…? Who’s there…?”

The chime-like sound echoes a second time, as if calling out to the girl.

Rising to her feet, Yuna follows the sound to its source and is eventually led outside the infirmary. “Is anyone there?”, she calls out into the darkness. Hearing the sound again, Yuna glances to her left and notices someone’s shadow retreating to the building’s side. Her feet carrying her into a light jog, she follows the shadow into the alley. “Is someone here?”, Yuna calls out yet again.

There, in the darkness of the alleyway, a person’s figure is seen. The figure was rather tall, and the moonlight mirrored off of its eyes like eyeglasses.

“Okay, whoever you are, this isn’t funny anymore… Now show me your face…!”

The figure -- instead of replying to the girl’s demands -- merely utters the following words:

“Shatter…! Kyouka Suigetsu…!”

“!!!” At the utterance of this invocation, Yuna’s eyes go completely blank, as she appears to fall under the effects of a powerful form of hypnosis.

The deed having been done, the shadowed figure bares its teeth in a toothed grin…

~*~*~*~

The following day.

As the bright Soul Society sun shines through the window glass, Yuji stirs from his long sleep at last. Slowly opening his eyes, the blue-haired teen sits up in his bed and stretches his arms high above him to works the knots out of his joints. “Mmmm… Morning, Yuna.”, Yuji utters to his sister. “…Hmm? Yuna?” But as the boy would then discover, his twin wasn’t present. Slowly rising to his feet and picking up his zanpakutou, Yuji exits the room and grabs the attention of the nearest 4th Division officer he could find. “Excuse me?”, the anxious boy calls out. “Do you know where my sister is? Yuna Sakuraba? She was in that room over there with me since last night.”

“Yuna Sakuraba?”, the officer replies confusedly. “Sorry, sir, but I went on duty just a few hours ago, and when last I checked, you were the only person in that room.”

“…That’s weird… She said she’d stay with me until I woke up. …Hmm. Maybe she was called back to Division HQ.”

This, unfortunately, turns out to not be the case, as when Yuji returns to the main 2nd Division building and asks around, he learns that no one had reported seeing Yuna since the day before. Fearing that someone was amiss, Yuji exits the building and leaps up onto the rooftop. Assuming a calm stance and closing his eyes, the lad attempts to get a feel for his sister’s reiatsu (spiritual pressure). “…” As he filters through the reiatsu of hundreds of other Soul Reapers, Yuji reopens his eyes after locating that of his twin. “There it is! …But it’s fading fast…!” Without a moment’s hesitation, Yuji grasps the hilt of his zanpakutou and takes off in the direction of his sister’s vanishing reiatsu with shunpo.

…The boy’s nonstop usage of shunpo eventually leads him to a deserted facility on the outskirts of the Seireitei. From the hollowed-out windows, bright hues of blue and white light are seen, and the sound of tortured cries and screams are heard. It was a sound Yuji recognized all too well. “That’s Yuna!” Once again grasping the hilt of his weapon, Yuji draws his sword from its scabbard and kicks in the front door, his feet then carrying him inside the facility. “Yuna!”, he calls out desperately. “…!!!” The boy with indigo hair would then be treated to a sight that filled him with dread.

Yuna was hooked up to a strange device that was forcibly extracting reiryoku (spiritual power) from her body and emptying it into a large container. With each drop of reiryoku Yuna lost, the pain being applied to her body intensified, reducing her to tear-inducing screams of agony.

“YUNA!!!”

Then, as if on cue, a figure emerges from the shadows to meet Yuji. “You’re late, runt.”, says the figure to Yuji derisively. “It ain’t nice to keep people waiting. Especially ‘sister dear’.”

“Who’s there!?”

Stepping out of the darkness, the figure reveals its unruly dirty-blond hair and its sloppily worn Gotei 13 uniform. From the shadows emerged… “Yo!” …2nd Division’s Akira Yasuaki.

“7th Seat Yasuaki!? W-What are you doing here!? What are you doing to Yuna!?”

“The same thing…that’ll be happening to you in just a few minutes…”, replies Akira in a rather menacing tone. Slowly moving his right hand to the left side of his hip, he takes a hold of his zanpakutou’s hilt and draws it from the sheath, proceeding to shout out its release command:

“Break through the sea of clouds! Susa-no-Ou!”

At the seated officer’s command, rolling clouds begin to gather overhead, in spite of the group’s being indoors. Yuji gazes up at these clouds with apprehension. “W-What are you…?”

Baring his teeth in a wide, malicious grin, Akira widens his stance, grasps the hilt of his weapon, and positions it by his shoulder in a way that the blade’s tip was pointed toward Yuji. Then, with a mighty shout, he calls down a single bolt of lightning to send a shock through Yuji’s system.

“AAAAHHHH!!!!” The sheer trauma of being struck by lightning coerces Yuji to his knees and his zanpakutou out of his hand. As every nerve in his body tingled, he struggles to lift his head and come face-to-face with his opponent. “You… W-Why…?”

“Wow. Still conscious, huh? Alright… Let’s try again!”, bellows the confident Akira, assaulting Yuji with a second lightning bolt.

“AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!” As the electricity passes through him, the defenseless Yuji loses feeling in every part of his body. At last, he falls over onto the cold ground, lifeless, exhaling a weak “…Yu…na…” just before losing consciousness…

…I was…dreaming again. Where was I this time? Everything was really bright at first, like I was in a space of white that stretched on forever. Then the image started to clear, and I was standing in a crowd of people. Just like last time. But they seemed to acknowledge my presence as they passed me by. What was this strange place? …Wait. I remember now. This was right after that woman in the black uniform saved me from the masked monster. I remember how much I wished I could see her again. So that I could thank her properly. But deep down, I knew that I probably wouldn’t get that chance. …What could I do now? I couldn’t find Yuna, or Mom and Dad. Was I the only one who died in the accident? I was all alone. Just like last time. I felt like crying. …But just then, I heard someone else crying already. It was a familiar cry too. Before I knew it, my feet were carrying me forward. I started pushing my way through the crowd, and the crying slowly got louder. Once I made my way into the clearing, I saw a girl my age in the distance whose eyes and cheeks were stained by tears. She was crying out “Mommy!”, “Daddy!”, and “Yuji!” into the empty sky, and I immediately knew who she was. “Yuna!”, I called out, and she turned to face me. After arriving in this unfamiliar world, nothing made the both of us happier than to see each other’s faces. …Yeah… With Mom and Dad nowhere to be found…we’re all we had left…

“…Y-Yuna…” Upon regaining consciousness, Yuji opens his eyes as if he had just awoken from a long, deep slumber. As his eyes adjust to the layout of the landscape, the first thing he comes to realize is that he was suspended above the ground. The second thing he realizes is that he was unable to move. “Where…?” Gazing about the area, he deduces that he was still in the facility where he found Yuna and Akira. But where were Yuna and Akira? Then, glancing just to the left of him, Yuji finds Yuna dangling helplessly from the reiryoku-extracting machine. “Yuna…!” He attempts to move so that he could help her, but to no avail. As of several minutes ago, Yuji too was hooked up to the machine. “Yuna! Can you hear me!? Wake up! …Grrrr… Come on… Got to…break free…”

“It’s useless.”

“Huh? Who…?” Looking straight ahead, Yuji sees Akira coolly approaching. Upon resting eyes on the traitorous Soul Reaper, Yuji grinds his teeth harshly. “7th Seat Yasuaki! What the hell’s going on here!? Why are you doing this!?”

“Hehehe… What, this? I’m just keeping up my end of the bargain is all. See, I went into a deal with ol’ Aizen.”

“Aizen…? The new captain of 5th Division?”

“Bingo! Guy in the glasses comes up to me and says if I bring him the ones who control Izanagi, he’ll make me into a Vizard. Sounds like a sweet deal, huh? ‘Til then, all I got as collateral is the power to control Menos. But even that’s pretty sick, wouldn’t you say?”

“Menos…!? T-Then you’re the one who…!?”

“I gotta say, I didn’t expect blue-hair over there to take ‘em out so quick. Izanagi sure is a killer power. I can see why Aizen’s so interested in it.”

“You…! You sent those Menos into Rukongai just so you could lure Yuna and me out into the open…!”

“Like I said, just keeping up my end of the bargain. ‘Confirm the power of Izanagi’ or something like that. That’s where this little beaut comes in. It’s designed to extract reiryoku at the molecular level and condense it into an easy-to-carry form. Aizen made it, so I dunno all the details on how it works, but who gives a rat’s ass about details, right? Hahaha!”

“You bastard…! You’d sell out your own subordinates for something as trivial as power…!?”

“Trivial, is it? Hah! This coming from the kid who has the potential to be the most powerful Soul Reaper in Soul Society history!”

“It’s not as though I asked for this power!”

“Yeah, isn’t that something…? Ain’t it ironic that I had to work my way up the ranks and gain Captain Soi Fon’s recognition through blood, sweat, and tears, while you and that worthless twin of yours didn’t even have to try…? Is that what you’d call fair!? Well, when’s my time, huh!? When is it Akira’s turn to shine in the spotlight!?”

“…”

“Aizen… He was the only one who noticed that injustice. That’s why he sought me out. That’s why I can turn my back on the Soul Society without regret. …Heh… You wanna hear something funny? I wasn’t even supposed to be 2nd Division’s 7th Seat. The candidates for that seat were me and someone else, but the other candidate turned it down. Can you believe that!? I’m a seated officer ‘cuz of another’s pity! Do you have any idea how humiliating that is!?”

“…It…wasn’t pity…”

“!!!” Glancing once more to his left, Yuji is shocked to see his twin sister Yuna slowly regaining consciousness. “Yuna!”

“…What was that…?”, grumbles Akira under his breath.

“I didn’t…turn down the position of 7th Seat…out of pity for you, ‘Aki-Aki’… I truly believed you were…more qualified for it than I was… Pity…had nothing to do with it…”

“…The other candidate…was you…?”

It took all of Yuna’s strength to curl her lips into a kind smile. “You don’t have to resort to all of this…just to attain recognition, 7th Seat Yasuaki… Ever since our Academy days, I knew…you were destined for greatness… I rooted for you…every step of the way…”

At that moment, it became clear to Yuji why nearly everyone in 2nd Division looked up to Yuna. It’s because she had the innate ability to coerce others into being their absolute best. She served as a symbol of inspiration and hope for them…

…For others, however, she merely served as comic relief. What starts out as silent chuckling eventually escalates into boisterous laughter on Akira’s part. “‘Pity had nothing to do with it’!? ‘Destined for greatness’!? You think words alone are gonna sway me!? Don’t make me laugh! Sweet nothings aren’t gonna help you here, girly!” Reaching into his uniform, Akira pulls out a small module with a push button on it. “This time…it’s my turn to come out ahead!”, he roars, pressing down on the button.

This act kicks the machine into gear once again, and Yuji and Yuna could feel their spirit power slipping away. The two let out shrieks of anguish as the sensation akin to millions of needles passes through their bodies. Nearby, the container storing their concentrated reiryoku slowly fills to capacity.

Akira watches this in sick amazement and even sicker amusement. “Yes… That’s it, just a little more…”

As soon as the container completely fills, the machine powers down and the restraints holding Yuji and Yuna release, allowing the twins’ weakened bodies to fall to the ground.

Satisfied with his triumph, Akira places the module back into his uniform. “There. Now, was that so hard?”, he says mockingly, unaware (or not caring) if the blue-haired twins were alert enough to hear.

Struggling to pick himself up, Yuji takes a hold of his dropped zanpakutou and rises to a single knee. “Yasuaki…”, he growls angrily. “I’m… I’m gonna…!” Unfortunately, the boy’s comeback would be cut short as Akira’s foot forcefully connects with his face and he falls back to the floor.

“I don’t think so, kid.”, snaps the treacherous Akira. “You wouldn’t dare try to stand up at this point. You’ve lost so much power, it’s just a matter of time before your body collapses from the pressure. Cherish the time you have left…‘cuz it won’t be for much longer.”

As much as Yuji wished to rise up and challenge Akira, he was right. Yuji and Yuna weren’t long for this world, and it was just a matter of time before their bodies would give up on them. With the little energy he had left, Yuji drags himself across the cold floor and takes Yuna into his lap. “Yuna…”, he whispers weakly. “Can you hear me…? …Say something…”

As her head lay comfortably in the lap of her brother, Yuna’s eyelids open bit by bit until the image of his face appears. “…Yuji…”, she cries out in a low whimper. “…I’m…so sorry… If I didn’t let myself get captured…you wouldn’t have had to…”

“Don’t say anything else… You don’t have to apologize for anything… I just wish…I could’ve done more to help you…”

“You’re here…by my side, Yuji… That’s…more than I could ever ask for… We’re all we have in this world…remember…?”

“…Yuna… Ah!” As she lay there in Yuji’s lap, Yuna’s body starts to become transparent. Her reiryoku was all but spent. The sight of this brings tears to Yuji’s eyes. “No…! Yuna, don’t go…! I don’t want to be alone again…!”

“You won’t…have to be, Yuji… H-Here… Give me your hand…”

Reaching over, Yuji takes Yuna’s hand into his own. Then, much to his surprise, the little spirit power Yuna had left began to flow out of her body into his. “Yuna!? W-What are you…!?”

“Yuji… I have a favor…to ask you… I want you…to keep on living… Survive…so that you can learn to smile again… Become…the best Soul Reaper-- …No… The best person…you can be… Can you…do that for me, Yuji…?”

By this time, Yuna’s form had become so transparent that Yuji could see right through her to the floor on which she lay. “No, Yuna…! Please…! Don’t leave me…!”

“I’m sorry… I know I’m…being selfish… But…I know you can do it… I…believe in you…”

Yuna’s hand was fuzzy to the touch at this point. The tears keep on rushing down Yuji’s cheeks. “Yuna…!!!”

As if her brother’s desperate pleas fell on deaf ears, Yuna slowly closes her eyes, drained of all her energy. “…Yu…ji…”, is the last word to escape Yuna’s lips before her form breaks down completely. Before long, she could no longer be seen…

…and whatever power she had remaining within her was now Yuji’s. This was clearly evidenced by the streak of cerulean that appears along the left side of his indigo hair. “…Yuna…”

“Oh, gag me with a spoon!”, a nearby voice blurts out. The nearby Akira was evidently unmoved by the scene that had just played out before him. “A lot of good that’ll do. The only thing blue-hair managed to do was prolong your inevitable demise. There’s no way she had enough power for you to maintain your form. …Persistent right until the very end.”

In the moments that followed, Yuji would reach over, grab his zanpakutou by its hilt, and slowly rise to his feet. His eyes were closed.

“Oh, for crying out loud, kid!”, snaps the frustrated Akira. He takes a hold of his zanpakutou as well. “You dunno when to give up, do you!?”

As Yuji opens his eyes to look at Akira, the kanji for “i” (伊) and “ja” (邪) appear in his left eye, and the kanji for “na” (那) and “ki” (岐) appear in his right eye, forming the word “Izanagi”. At that moment, the walls of the building he was standing inside begin to deconstruct into the reishi (spirit particles) that they were composed of, and they flow into Yuji’s body to compensate for its loss of reiryoku. Even the container several feet away storing the twins’ condensed reiryoku had eventually succumbed to the pressure of Yuji’s power; the glass shatters into hundreds of fragments, allowing the reiryoku to pour out freely and return to its original host soul. Yuji had recovered all his lost energy and then some.

It was a sight that filled the observing Akira with shock and panic. “T-The hell!? What are you doing!?”

Baring his hate-filled eyes at the duplicitous Soul Reaper, Yuji holds his sword-wielding arm out to the side and points the blade of his weapon downward. Finally, parting his lips to speak, the indigo-haired teenager whispers threateningly:

“…Bankai…!”

Holding his arms before him, Akira defends himself from the onrush of frigid wind. “This is…! This is impossible! You should be dead by now!” As the gale force winds finally die down, the dirty-blond Soul Reaper finds himself in a landscape of snow and below-zero temperatures. Everything around him was covered in a thin layer of ice. “…”

Standing across from him was Yuji, standing tall with his head held high. His indigo-hair with the cerulean streak was now entirely light-blue, his Gotei 13 uniform was completely white, and the curved blade of his zanpakutou had straightened into a ninjatou, much like Yuna’s blade. As usual, the kanji for the word “Izanagi” still shine brightly in Yuji’s eyes. And then, as the harsh winds devolve to that of a cool breeze, Yuji utters the name of his newly released Bankai:

“…Toushou Tsukuyomi…”

As Akira grinds his teeth angrily, it was his turn to break the silence. “Well, you’re just chockfull of surprises, aren’t you, kid…?”, he starts, readying his zanpakutou. “It doesn’t make a lick of difference though. Aizen’s got plenty of more gizmos like the one you just trashed, and no one’s gonna stand between me and my destiny!” Conjuring the power of his Susa-no-Ou, Akira sends a blast of hot wind in Yuji’s direction.

It may have been enough to melt the ice off the walls, but nowhere near enough to break Yuji’s stance. His expression unchanged, the white-garbed Soul Reaper slowly steps forward with plans to challenge Akira in close quarters.

“Tch! Alright, ‘blueblood’, try this on for size!”, snarls Akira, sending a three-pronged stream of lightning at his opponent.

Using his blade, Yuji shields himself from the oncoming electric storm. The assault pushes him back several feet, but his expression was still frozen (in every sense of the word).

“Hahahaha! Not so high and mighty now, are you, ‘Mr. Izanagi’!?”

There was no way through Akira’s relentless electric attack, so the only option left to Yuji was to go around it. “First Logic: Ginsekai!” In the several seconds that followed, his body and weapon vanishes in a swirl of snow.

“What the hell!?” Mere moments later, Akira is forced to switch from offense to defense, as Yuji reappears at his back. In an instant, a furious clash of blades ensues. “H-How did you…?!?”

“My Bankai…”, Yuji explains, “…grants me the use of three special abilities -- ‘logics’. You’ve just witnessed the first one: Ginsekai. But don’t worry. I’ll be sure to show you all three of them before I kill you.”

“Tch! You’ve got quite a mouth on you, kid! Someone oughta muzzle it for you!” Spinning his body around, Akira swings his blade forcefully with the intent of slicing Yuji’s body in half. At the very last second, however, his blade simply flies through a field of snowflakes, as Yuji had made use of his Ginsekai a second time. “Grrrr… You ain’t gonna beat me by resorting to cheap tricks, shorty!” The battlefield was still and silent as Akira awaits Yuji’s reappearance. “…!!!” Just then, the dirty-blond Soul Reaper detects the presence of another several feet behind him. “NO ESCAPE!!!”, he bellows, spinning around swiftly and thrusting his zanpakutou forward.

The weapon would come into contact with Yuji, its blade propelling straight through his torso.

“Heh! Gotcha this time, blue-hair!”, exclaims Akira triumphantly. Alas, this would prove to be a premature victory, as an unusual mirror frame suddenly materializes itself around Yuji. With the frame in place, the image within it bends and distorts to form a new image: the mirror image of Akira. “W-What…? What is this!?”

“Second Logic…”, Yuji’s voice echoes, “…Seihansha!”

Akira’s reflection in the mirror had Akira’s blade thrust through its chest, and blood trickles out from the wound. “…Agh!!!” Before the real Akira had realized, the same wound had appeared in his chest as well. It was as if he’d run himself through with his own blade. The injured warrior’s zanpakutou clatters on the ground as he reels to his knees from the strike. “This… This can’t be happening…!”, he gasps. “I was supposed to be a Vizard…! This was supposed to be my time to shine…!”

Reappearing a small number of yards away from the defeated Soul Reaper, Yuji brandishes his blade again. “You won’t be acquiring any power today, Akira. For Yuna…and all the innocent people you’ve hurt in your sick quest for power…you’re going to die by my hand!” Then, with his blade risen, Yuji jumps forward and soars toward Akira at high speed. Just seconds before his blade connects, he invokes, “Third Logic: Hyouten!!!” With this cry, Yuji’s body becomes that of a phantom, and he phases through Akira’s body intangibly, landing with his feet on the ground moments later, his body fully solid again.

At first, it appeared that Yuji’s attack did nothing to change Akira’s current condition. But soon enough, the traitorous Soul Reaper would feel his body temperature quickly plummeting. “W-What’s going on…!? W-Why do I f-feel so cold…!?” Then, as he glances down, Akira’s eyes go wide as he discovers his body slowly being encased in frost. “!!!” From the chest wound out, solid ice begins to cover Akira’s upper and lower body. By the time the ice had coated all but his head, Akira was completely immobile. “N-No… No…! Aah…!! AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!” Akira’s scream is the last thing to be heard, as Yuji’s ice completely traps him, head and all.

Finally, in the same fashion as the Menos he’d faced a couple days before, Yuji turns his hand over palm-face-up, puts his fingers together, and snaps. The sound echoes through the air, and Akira’s frozen body shatters like shards of glass. Yuji slides his zanpakutou back into its sheath. The battle was over, and the boy with sapphire hair was the victor. A calm silence overtakes the battlefield as Yuji places the palm of his hand over his left eye. He could almost feel his sister’s presence. “…Yuna…”, the lad somberly whispers in solitude.

~*~*~*~

Soul Society. Five months later.

During the time that followed Yuji Sakuraba’s epic battle against Akira Yasuaki, the treasonous 7th Seat of 2nd Division, Yuji had stood trial before Soul Society’s Central 46 for the murder of the seated officer. Fortunately, with the evidence presented at the trial incriminating Akira, including the remains of the facility outside the Seireitei as well as reiryoku residue left by his Susa-no-Ou, Yuji was eventually found innocent.

In addition, thanks to his recognized mastery over Bankai, Yuji faced a transfer to 13th Division and a swift ascent through the ranks.

And within half a year’s time, all was peaceful again in Soul Society.

Within his personal 13th Division quarters, Lieutenant Yuji Sakuraba is seen, as expected of him, sleeping on the couch with his body in a lounging position. His facial expression indicated he was having a pleasant dream.

Just then, there was a thud against the couch he laid on, followed by a murmured “Ow! My toe!”

“…?” Stirred awake by the strange sounds, Yuji sits upright to determine the identity of whoever was present. “Who’s there?”

“Eeeep!” Startled by Yuji’s awakening, the mystery Soul Reaper dashes out in a panic…

…but just before the Soul Reaper’s hasty retreat, Yuji could swear he saw locks of blond hair. “…Was that…?” Then, rising to his feet, the lieutenant of 13th Division looks over and notices an enveloped letter on his desk. The words “Lieutenant Sakuraba” were written on the front in stylish cursive. It had the telltale signs of a love letter. “This looks like Kiyone’s handwriting…”, comments Yuji to himself, recognizing the handwriting of 3rd Seat Kiyone Kotetsu. The thought of receiving a love letter from anyone had brought tinges of red to Yuji’s cheeks.

Just then, Yuji’s attention would be drawn away from the letter in his hands to the doorway, as a chime-like sound signals the arrival of a hell butterfly. As the black-winged insect flutters inside, it perches upon Yuji’s left index finger to forward a message. “‘Hollow patrol outside Karakura Town’… Hmph!” Upon placing his lieutenant’s badge on and taking up his blade and scabbard, Yuji heads out. His next stop: the real world.

A short time later, on the outskirts of Karakura, a number of Hollows could be seen rampaging through the city streets, feeding on whatever innocent souls they could find. Their shrill cries of wrath filled the air.

Close by, a small number of Soul Reaper troops, led by Lieutenant Sakuraba of 13th Division, arrives on the scene to exterminate them. With his zanpakutou drawn, one lower-ranking Soul Reaper turns to Yuji and dutifully proclaims, “Awaiting your signal, Lieutenant Sakuraba!”

As he looks down upon the legion of Hollows with disdain, Yuji reaches his right hand to his left side and takes a firm grasp of his zanpakutou’s hilt. And then, as the cool spring breeze blows over him…

…he curls his mouth into a confident grin.

In a fierce backhanded motion, Yuji draws his blade and signals his troops to battle with, “Attack Show them no mercy!” And the battle had begun. Then, addressing his zanpakutou, Yuji asks, “Ready to go, ‘Yomi’? …Alright! You lead and I’ll follow!” With his blade firm in hand, Yuji soars down to the battlefield. Driving him forward were his zanpakutou Tsukuyomi…and the lingering spirit of Yuna within him.

THE END