[Last edit: 23/10/2014] Dedicated to WinterRaineeDay for being a faithful reader of this book and for supporting me all the time. Give her some love <3

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- Chapter 3 -

Intruders 2: The fight

Ichigo

Ganzu and I ended up together since we were separeated from the rest of us. And he is not the only problem in here. After we landed, three Soul Reapers already appeared- a man with a shaved head, a short red-head and somewhat hot-headed girl and a . . . she-man? I know I didn't expect many things from the Shinigamis but. . . that? C'mon now.

"Huh?" I exclaimed surprised and we both looked at them confused. Then, the bald one started dancing-or at least doing something that looked like a dance- which finished with him holding his zanpakuto and his shaved head shining on the sun. Every single one of us stayed in silence and didn't dare to move an inch.

"What are you two still doing there? I did the Tsuki-Tsuki dance to give you some time to climb out of there! Yet you did nothing but stare?! What ungratefull bastards!!" the bald guy yelled frustrated and started cussing under his breath.

"Shut the fuck up, Ikkaku!" the girl yelled back at him and slapped the back of his head to show him how irritated she really was.

The Ikkaku guy rubbed the back of his head and gave to his partner an angry look while a vein popped on his head, "Why did you do this?" 

"What's up with him?" I asked simply, obviously confused and startled from the whole situation. Were all the Soul Reapers like that?

"Hey!" Ganzu eyed suspiciously the empty space around him and whispered to me.

I looked at him and hissed, "What?"

"What do you mean 'what?' Let's get the hell out of here!" he stated like it was obvious and gave me an angry look.

My jaw almost dropped on the floor- I mean, sand- as I raised my hand to punch him for his idiotic proposals. "R-run away?! This is not the time for your usual stupidity!"

"You are the idiot! Their spiritual strength is much higher than a normal Shinigami!" 

"What are you two arguing about?" Ikkaku asked and that's when we realized that their argument had finished. We didn't respond to him as we didn't want to reveal anything to our enemies. "Oh well, go ahead and argue. Nothing can change your upcoming demise anyways"

The she-man besides Ikkaku sighed and gave him a sharp yet neet-y look "But if we keep waiting, somebody might come and steal our kill" 

"Ah? That makes sense"

"You two are argying like two hungry lions who are deciding what to do with their prey" the only girl pointed out and sweat dropped slightly. I couldn't agree more with her- they were indeed doing that and it was kind of. . . I don't know, freaking me out?

"You little-- forget it" he started saying to the girl but let it go and laid his attention back on us,  "I'll give you a limited amount of time to argue. You have until I finish the next dance-"

"I DON'T CARE! I'M RUNNING! IF YOU WANT TO FIGHT, DO IT ALONE!" Ganzu yelled at me and started running. When the hell did he get out of the hole?

Ikkaku watched my partner leaving with awkwardness replacing the tense atmosphere, "What was that? Are you two breaking up?" 

"... more or less...." .

"Chih! How troublesome... " the bald head exclaimed in annoyance and crossed his arms in front of his broad chest, "Yumichika!!"

"Affirmative" the she-man who happens to be a guy named Yumichika runs off and heads towards the destination Ganzu went off. That idiot. . . What the heck is he thinking? Actually, is he even bothering to think?

When I lost sight of them, I decided to get up and crawl out of that deep hole.

"Hey" the girl snapped, "Why didn't you run?"

"That guy probably noticed that we are stronger, so he ran off. Which I thought was a smart decision" Ikkaku continued.

"If you really are stronger than me, what would have been the point of running away, when you would have caught up to me anyways?" I asked him in a simple manner, my eyes snapping at the corner where Ganzu and the other Shinigami disappeared at. From the corner of my eye, I could see Ikkaku looking at me intensively.

"However, if you are just a weakling, I can simply kick your ass and then defeat the girl next to you. That's what I thought" I continued cockily as a teasing smirk appeared on my lips.

The man chuckled and smirked back at me, "I see. You are not so dumb after all" 

Suddenly, everything happened in a split second. Ikkaku unsheathed his sword and brought it down on me but luckily enough, my reflexes acted on their own and blocked his quick attack.

"Ikkaku!" the girl yelled with worry swimming in her eyes. She was obviously caring about the shinigami.

"Don't worry. I got him" Ikkaku calmed her down while staring deeply in my eyes with his dark ones.

I pulled back my sword which was blocking his and I made a swift move, making sure I was well-prepared for my attack. However, he blocked my upcoming attack with his sword's case. He is using the seath? I thought in surprise but was soon cut off as soon as his other hand tried to chop me in half with his sword. I jumped up and stepped on his seath, fastly appearing behind him. He looked dumbfounded from my quick reaction but as a better fighter than I was, he found me quickly enough.

Both of us attacked with our swords clashing against each other and I felt  an acute pain above my eye. Then, the blood started streaming down my face and dripping on the ground. But soon, my blood droplets met the ones Ikkaku was losing too. I got him in the same spot too.

"One question... What's your name?" he asked me with his arrogant smirk.

"Kurosaki Ichigo" 

"Ichigo... is it? That's a nice name" 

"Yeah? You are the first one to ever say that" 

"Ah... Men with the word 'Ichi' in their names are often powerful and talented. I'm captain of squad 3, 11th division, Ikkaku Madarame" he introduced himself. "Since we both have 'ichi' in our names, let's make this a great fight!"

"Whatever" I replied but a smirk found its own way on my lips. I wiped the blood away since it was making me go a bit blind and I focused on defeating my strong opponent.

"I just can't understand. Even though there's fair amount of distance between us, when two people are engaged in a fight, only a rookie would remove his hand of his sword" 

I couldn't hear exactly what he was saying. I understood some things he said about not wipping off the blood, but trying to find a way to stop the bleeding. He suddenly took out from his sword a weird liquid, something that was looking like an ointment, and applied it to his wound. Suddenly, his bleeding stopped.

Now, what? This is unfair, dammit!

Miyori

Since Ikkaku started fighting with the orange-haired guy, I could do nothing but watch. Currently, they were arguing about a lot of things that I couldn't understand because mainly, my thoughts were full of worry about my best friend. Why can't he just let me fight this intruder? I can win and overpower him in a split second if he is as weak as he looks!

"Who is it?" I heard Ikkaku asking him which perked my interest.

"Urahara Kisuke" the orange-headed guy said and Ikkaku froze. Wait, who is Urahara Kisuke?

Then, Ikkaku told him something which seemed to piss him off because the orange-head clenched his fist and his grasp around his zanpakuto. Suddenly, Ikkaku put his sheath and his zanpakuto in the same line and he yelled:

"Grow longer! Hoozukimaru!" And with those words, Ikkaku released one of his great powers, his zanpakuto in his Shikai form. It was a weapon made of wood which had two sharp edges and due to its long length, it could reach further and cut anything close to it.

The orange-haired guy seemed surprised when Ikkaku attacked him. The guy dodged it easily and they started fighting again. I have to admit it, the guy is a good fighter. Having to keep Ikkaku busy for such a long time is a miracle. When they sepereated again, the guy's hand was bleeding. He took some bandages which were already wrapped around his zanpakuto and pulled them around his injured arm.

Then, he did something I didn't except to. He attacked Ikkaku without a warning or something showing he was going to charge at him and the force of his hit made the building behind Ikkaku to colapse. The dust which was blown around was limiting my vision and I could see nothing, literally nothing.

"Ikkaku!" I called out his name and finally saw im, safe and sound standing over some fallen pieces of the walls. I clenched my fist to my side. If Ikkaku wasn't going to kill him soon, I was going to finish his job.

They started talking again,but then Ikkaku made another recurrent attack. The guy blocked his attack with his sword but Ikkaku's zanpakuto hit him in the head since the length was surpassing his height. The guy charged at him for another time and there was a variety of hittings following, injuring both sides. Who taught him all this stuff?

Suddenly, I saw that guy holding a piece of Hoozukimaru. Ikkaku looked at him surprised, so do I. How did he do that? He actually managed to break a part of Ikkaku's sword! Then, the guy sped off towards Ikkaku again. When their swords clashed, a big explosion together with dust took place and I had to cover my eyes momentarily.

When I opened them, I couldn't believe what I saw. Hoozukimaru was sepereated in two pieces and there was a huge wound in Ikkaku's chest. I wasn't able to talk or scream. I just stood there. Blood was running down his body. Despite his fatal injuries, he started spinning his sword above his head.

"Ikkaku, no!" I yelled in a desperated tone, trying to persuade him to leave the guy as he was.

"Shut up, Miyori! I know what I'm doing!" he yelled back at me with irritation and I couldn't help but feel anger about him.

Then, Ikkaku jumped at him again and the guy yelled something before the unexpected happened. And then, there was Ikkaku's hand bleeding. Tears started forming in my eyes. He couldn't lose. Not now. But Ikkaku finally colapsed.

"No, Ikkaku!" I called out and ran towards his fallen figure, trying to hold back the tears which were threatening to fall off of my eyes at any moment. 

When I checked if he was alive, I realized with satisfication that he was still breathing, but weakly.  Tears started rolling down my cheeks without warning and fell over Ikkaku's multiple injured body. I looked at the victor of this fight. He had won, yet he was still here.

''Why don't you leave? You won this battle so leave, before I hurt you!" I yelled with frustration at him but he didn't move an inch.

I pulled out my zanpakuto while me eyes were starting to be filled with pure anger. Anger for Ikkaku who didn't listen to me and anger for the intruders, especially for that guy, who did this to Ikkaku.

"Leave or you'll have to deal with my zanpakuto" I threatened and tightened my grip around the hilt of my sword. Finally, he ran away and when I made sure he was nowhere to be found, I fell on my knees and stared at Ikkaku's body.

Ikkaku is such a jerk. A huge ass. Why didn't he let me take over the fight? Why didn't he let me help him? Why didn't he called for back-ups? Why didn't he. . . listened to me? With those unanswered questions swimming around my mind, a pari of footsteps was heard to be approaching me slowly.