The forest.

The Shinigami I had grabbed didn’t answer, instead I heard captain Unohana herself. “Last I have seen of her she was pulled down into the forest.” I gave her a thankful nod and took a deep breath before departing.

Every single step hurt, using Shunpo to get forward wasn’t exactly helping my condition either. Still, I carried onward, refusing to break down until I knew which fate had befallen the captain. Once I had entered the forest a huge explosion on the horizon made it pretty obvious where I had to go. With a quick Shunpo forward I found myself in the clash of two Shinigami.

But neither of them were Soifon. A spear suddenly thrusted into my direction. I managed to activate my Shikai and caught it centimetres in front of my shoulder. “Yo.” A bald men with red eyeliner said, “I see you want to participate?” he asked and ripped his spear out of my hand before I was attacked from the other side.

I anticipated that strike so dodging it became a whole lot easier. The giant sword cleaved the ground where I had just stood, holding the sword was Tetsuzaemon Iba with his dumb sunglasses. “You do not want to do this right now.” I said, my voice filled with pain. “I’m seriously not in the mood for a fight.”

“On the contrary, you seem in the perfect mood for a fight.” Ikkaku said “In fact every mood is perfect for a fight!” seconds later the three of us clashed. ‘Fucking Gotei 11 meatheads.’ I thought as we fought for whatever reason. I opened the left hand portal beneath me, thanks to my training that didn’t even take a second nowadays. Then it was straight back to exchanging blows.

There was no focus, the three of us exchanged blows at whoever showed an opening. ‘Merc, I can produce whatever weapon I want right?’ I asked the spirit, ‘As long as you have wielded it before yes, thanks to me it will even be useful.’ He answered. With that in mind a plan formulated in my head.

I used a Shunpo to appear at a nearby cliff and waited. The two hot-headed brawlers were quick to charge after me. I guess they expected me to block, but instead I simply kneeled down and slammed my right hand into the ground.

The whole world turned around as I appeared upside down at the first portal. Above me the other two combatants slammed into cliff. They didn’t plant into the rock face first of course, they simply used the rocky wall to stop their charge.

I had maybe a few seconds before their confusion settled down, but that was enough time for me. First I get myself standing again then I materialized the weapon I had used in life, a front-loaded musket with a bayonet. Without delay I pulled the trigger.

Luckily for me it worked exactly how I had it expected too. A loud bang echoed through the forest followed by a metallic clang. Iba had blocked the bullet with his sword. Didn’t matter much to me, thanks to the changes of Merc to the weapon the bullet packed enough of a punch to send the guy flying into the cliff wall, pulling Ikkaku with him. Rubble and dust blew into the air, robbing me of sight.

Without a doubt that would only delay them for a few more seconds. What? These guys were still stronger than me, I am just happy I came this far without getting seriously injured. I turned around and started running.

Ikkaku suddenly appeared before me. I blocked his strike with the musket but was sent flying backwards in the process. I crashed into the ground, spewing blood. “That wasn’t half bad, you sneaky Bastard.” He said and landed a few metres in front of me, hastily I assumed a fighting stance. “I say you and me win this round.”

Iba appeared from the dust, “Bah, beginner’s luck.” Before running off. Ikkaku nonchalantly put his spear on his shoulder and cracked his neck. “Will take a couple of minutes before he comes back with the booze.”

“The booze?” Surprise and anger filled my voice. “Yeah, rule is whoever loses has to get the next round.” Ikkaku said and smiled.

“You fucking idiots stopped me because of your brawl about who is getting the drinks?” I shouted, “I don’t have time for this shit.” I started running again, this time he didn’t stop me.

Moments later I arrived at the source of the explosion earlier. The destruction was enormous. What had once been a forest was now a desolate plain.

And in the middle of it all was Soifon, on her knees in front of…

Yoruichi Shihouin, former captain of the Gotei 2.

. I slowly got closer, Soifon had lost there was no doubt about it, but Yoruichi didn’t make a move. “…didn’t take me with you?” was all I could pick off of their conversation, then I saw Soifon beginning to cry.

I stopped dead in my tracks and watched as Yoruichi kneeled down. Neither of them noticed me and I got the feeling that it was better that way. I noticed no ill will here and whatever the two of them had were about to speak about was not my business.

Instead I turned around and left, relieved that the captain was secure I walked back to the two knuckleheads.

“You now have time for ‘this shit’.” Ikkaku asked and passed me the bottle. Wordlessly I took a huge swing to get the taste of blood out of my mouth and then passed it to Iba who emptied it moments later. “Ready, for Round Three?” he asked and tossed it to the side.

I smiled. With the relief the pain in my stomach had returned with increased intensity. “You go ahead and have fun.” I said before leaning on a nearby tree. “I will have to rest for a bit.” The sweet arms of sleep enveloped me once more as my consciousness drifted away.