()()()()()()()()()()()()(Seireitei - The War Continues)()()()()()()()()()()()()
"BANKAI!"
Ichigo's voice tore through the ruined avenue.
Tensa Zangetsu answered him at once.
Black and crimson reiatsu wrapped around his body in a violent spiral, ripping loose roof tiles from the buildings that were still standing. The tiles spun into the air, shattered against one another, and disappeared into the storm of dust already rolling through the district. A bell somewhere beyond the smoke rang twice before its tower collapsed with a deep wooden crack.
Hephaestus was still in the middle of the street.
Her right leg was broken below the knee. One arm hung against her side, trembling from exhaustion, and blood had dried in thin trails beneath her nose and along the corner of her mouth. Her eyepatch was gone. Red hair, normally kept with far more dignity than the battlefield allowed, had come loose and clung to the sweat on her face.
Two attacks were closing on her.
One was Ichigo's.
The other had been thrown back by Yhwach.
Hephaestus's exposed eye widened as both crescents swallowed the street in black light. "Ichigo!"
He moved before she finished saying his name.
The pavement where he had been standing collapsed into a shallow crater. Ichigo crossed the distance, hooked his left arm around Hephaestus's waist, and pulled her against his chest. Her breath left her in a sharp gasp when the movement jarred her broken leg.
"Sorry," Ichigo muttered, his jaw tightening when he felt her flinch. "Hold on to me."
Hephaestus wrapped both arms around his shoulders. Pain had drained much of the color from her face, but her grip remained stubbornly strong.
"I had no intention of doing otherwise, dear."
Ichigo planted his feet.
Tensa Zangetsu came up in both hands.
The first Getsuga struck the edge of his blade.
The impact drove Ichigo backward through the street. His sandals carved twin channels through the white stone while Hephaestus buried her face against his shoulder to protect her eyes from the debris. The blast split around Zangetsu and tore into the buildings on either side of them. Walls disappeared. Wooden beams cartwheeled through the air. A burning section of roof passed over Ichigo's head and crashed behind him in a shower of sparks.
Ichigo twisted his wrists.
Instead of trying to stop the attack, he turned the blade and forced the crescent upward. The Getsuga climbed.
It cut through the smoke above Seireitei and vanished into the red sky. The second attack arrived from behind.
Hephaestus saw it first.
Her fingers dug into Ichigo's shoulder.
"Behind you!"
Ichigo pivoted on his left foot. His right leg swept around, his hips following the motion, and Tensa Zangetsu came down in a two-handed diagonal cut.
The edge bit into the second Getsuga.
For a moment, the attack held together.
Ichigo felt the familiar shape of his own power pushing against him. He knew every part of it. The compressed reiatsu. The violent edge. The way the energy wanted to continue forward once released.
Something else sat beneath that familiarity now.
Something quiet.
He could feel where the attack ended.
Ichigo's eyes narrowed.
His grip relaxed by a fraction.
"Die."
The word left his mouth without thought.
The Getsuga collapsed.
It did not explode. It simply lost the ability to continue existing.
Black light broke apart into drifting particles. The pressure vanished with it, leaving nothing but wind and the sound of stone settling across the destroyed avenue.
Ichigo stared at the empty air.
Hephaestus slowly lifted her head from his shoulder.
Her eye moved from the place where the attack had disappeared to her husband's face.
"Ichigo," Hephaestus said carefully, her voice low enough that he almost missed it beneath the distant fighting. "Was that intentional?"
Ichigo's brow furrowed. He kept his sword raised while he searched the sensation that had passed through him.
"Mostly."
Hephaestus gave him a tired look.
"That is not a reassuring answer."
"Wasn't meant to be."
A laugh almost escaped her. It died before it could fully form.
Her expression changed.
Ichigo noticed immediately.
"What?"
Hephaestus looked past him toward the shattered residence where the children had been.
Her lips parted, but no sound came out at first. The goddess drew a slow breath through her nose and forced herself to look back at him.
"Kazui and Senna were taken."
Ichigo stopped moving.
The war continued around him.
A formation of Quincy arrows crossed the sky to the north. A barrier of blue-white Kidou rose from behind a line of broken barracks and caught most of them, but three punched through and exploded somewhere beyond the wall. Shinigami shouted for medics. A wounded Soldat crawled beneath an overturned cart. Farther away, something enormous roared before being answered by the unmistakable crash of Kenpachi hitting it.
Ichigo heard all of it.
For several seconds, none of it mattered.
He looked down at Hephaestus.
"Say that again."
Hephaestus's jaw tightened. Her composure held, but only because she was forcing it to. "They took our children."
Ichigo's reiatsu spread through the district.
The pressure was immediate enough to make wounded soldiers on both sides flatten themselves against the ground. Loose dust lifted around his feet. Windows cracked in
buildings three streets away.
He searched.
Kazui's spiritual pressure should have been easy to find. Senna's was different, warmer and stranger because of what she had inherited from Hephaestus, but Ichigo knew it just as well.
He found neither.
His eyes hardened.
"Who?"
Hephaestus shifted in his arms. The movement sent another flash of pain through her leg, and her fingers tightened briefly against the back of his neck before she continued.
"Three entered the residence. They addressed one another during the fight. Gerard. Lille. Askin." Her eye lowered for a moment as she reconstructed the attack. "The one called Lille escaped with Kazui and Senna. Gerard remained long enough to keep me occupied. Askin..."
A trace of satisfaction appeared through the exhaustion on her face.
"Askin was irritating. I sent him somewhere unpleasant."
Ichigo looked at her.
"How unpleasant?"
"Tartarus, if the old pathways answered me correctly."
Despite everything, Ichigo blinked.
"You threw him into Tartarus?"
Hephaestus raised one eyebrow.
"He threatened my children."
"Fair."
The humor lasted less than a second.
Ichigo's head turned.
Yhwach stood on the remains of a roof two hundred yards away.
The Quincy King had not moved while Ichigo saved Hephaestus. His dark cloak hung almost motionless despite the hot wind sweeping ash across the rooftops. Multiple pupils shifted within each eye as he watched Ichigo from across the ruined district.
Ichigo's face went still.
Hephaestus felt his body tense beneath her.
"Ichigo."
He did not look away from Yhwach.
"He knows where they are."
"Almost certainly."
"Then I'm asking him."
Hephaestus studied the side of his face. The rage was there, but it had settled into something colder than the fury she had seen from him before.
"Ask first," she said. "Kill him afterward."
Ichigo glanced down at her.
Hephaestus's expression remained perfectly serious.
"I am several thousand years old, dear. I know the value of proper sequencing." A corner of Ichigo's mouth twitched.
"There you are."
"I have been here the entire time."
A blue arrow screamed toward them.
Ichigo did not even turn.
He caught it between two fingers.
The reishi shaft vibrated against his skin.
He looked toward the Quincy archer standing on a distant roof.
The Soldat froze.
Ichigo flicked the arrow back.
It crossed the distance faster than the man could react and struck the roof beside his head, blowing the entire corner of the building apart. The Soldat disappeared into the smoke with a frightened shout.
"That was rude," Ichigo muttered.
Hephaestus sighed against his shoulder.
"You are in the middle of a war."
"Still rude."
Ichigo lowered himself beside a broken stone wall and carefully set Hephaestus down with her back supported against it.
The moment his arm moved away from her waist, she caught his sleeve. Ichigo looked at her hand, then at her face.
Hephaestus's voice softened.
"Do not mistake my desire to have our children returned for permission to become careless."
"I'm not going to be careless."
"You are currently looking at Yhwach as though you intend to beat information out of his skeleton."
Ichigo considered that.
"That's pretty much the plan."
Hephaestus closed her eye for a moment.
"Ichigo."
"I'll be careful."
She opened her eye again.
He meant it.
That did not make her particularly comfortable with the definition he was likely using.
"Very well," Hephaestus said. She released his sleeve and rested her hand against the broken stone beside her. "Go."
Ichigo stood.
He disappeared.
Yhwach's sword was already moving when Ichigo arrived.
Steel met black steel above the rooftop.
The force flattened the building beneath them.
Yhwach's feet dropped through the tiles. Ichigo drove forward with his right shoulder, keeping Tensa Zangetsu pressed against the Quincy King's blade while his left hand came off the hilt.
Yhwach's eyes shifted.
Ichigo's fist changed direction halfway through the punch.
Instead of aiming for Yhwach's jaw, he drove his knuckles into the man's ribs. The hit folded Yhwach around the impact and launched him sideways.
Ichigo followed.
Yhwach struck the wall of a watchtower. Stone cracked behind him.
Before the debris had time to fall, Ichigo appeared inside the cloud and swung horizontally at Yhwach's neck.
Yhwach ducked.
Tensa Zangetsu cut through the tower.
The upper half of the structure began to slide.
Yhwach thrust upward from his crouch.
Ichigo turned his sword vertical. The Quincy blade scraped along Zangetsu's flat, throwing sparks into his face. Ichigo shifted his weight to his rear foot, let the thrust pass his shoulder, then stepped inside Yhwach's reach.
His foehead slammed into Yhwach's nose.
Blood sprayed.
Ichigo caught the Quincy King's wrist before he could retreat.
"Where are my kids?"
Yhwach's expression barely changed despite the blood running over his mouth. "Alive."
Ichigo twisted the captured wrist.
Bone cracked.
"Where?"
Yhwach's eyes moved.
Ichigo released him immediately and leaned backward.
A spear of reishi passed through the space his throat had occupied.
Three more formed behind Yhwach.
Ichigo stepped left.
The first passed his ribs.
He cut the second in half.
The third came low. Ichigo hopped over it, planted one foot against Yhwach's chest while still airborne, and kicked off hard enough to send the Quincy King through what remained of the tower.
Ichigo landed on a falling section of roof.
He used it as a platform for half a heartbeat, then launched himself after Yhwach. The tower collapsed behind him.
Yhwach emerged from the dust with his broken wrist already straightening. Ichigo saw the bones pull themselves back into place.
"Annoying," Ichigo said.
Yhwach wiped blood from beneath his nose with his thumb.
"You have become difficult to read."
Ichigo lowered his stance. His left foot slid forward over the broken street, Tensa Zangetsu held low beside his hip.
Yhwach vanished.
Ichigo turned.
Their blades collided behind him.
Yhwach had aimed for the base of his skull. Ichigo caught the strike without looking, then rolled his wrist and trapped Yhwach's sword beneath Zangetsu's guard.
Ichigo drove his elbow backward.
Yhwach shifted just enough for the elbow to graze his cheek.
Ichigo continued the rotation. His heel came around next.
Yhwach blocked with his forearm.
The kick still sent him skidding thirty feet through the air.
Ichigo did not chase immediately.
He watched Yhwach's eyes.
The pupils moved before every successful defense.
Small movements. Tiny adjustments.
Yhwach was not simply reacting to him.
He was choosing.
Ichigo's grip tightened around Zangetsu.
"You're looking ahead."
Yhwach's smile returned.
"You already knew that."
"Knowing and seeing are different."
A thunderous explosion rolled across the district behind Ichigo.
Neither man looked away from the other.
Yhwach raised his sword.
"There are futures in which you continue this battle."
Ichigo's expression darkened.
"And?"
"In several of them, your daughter stops breathing before your next attack reaches me." Everything around Ichigo seemed to become quieter.
Yhwach watched his face closely.
"Your son follows in others."
Ichigo's sword did not lower.
"You're lying."
"Perhaps."
Yhwach's tone remained almost conversational.
"Would you like to discover which future I selected?"
Ichigo stared at him.
The air around Tensa Zangetsu thickened with black reiatsu.
He could cross the distance.
He could remove Yhwach's head.
He could burn the entire district out of Soul Society if that was what it took. But he could not feel Kazui.
He could not feel Senna.
He had no way to know whether Yhwach was bluffing.
That uncertainty wrapped around his arm more effectively than any chain. Yhwach saw the realization.
"There," the Quincy King said quietly. "Now you understand the shape of the battlefield." Ichigo's eyes narrowed.
"No."
Yhwach tilted his head.
Ichigo vanished.
His fist struck Yhwach directly in the mouth.
The Quincy King's head snapped backward.
Ichigo caught the front of his cloak, pulled him down, and drove his knee into Yhwach's stomach.
The impact folded him in half.
"I understand one thing," Ichigo growled beside his ear. "You needed hostages." Yhwach's expression changed by the smallest amount.
Ichigo noticed.
"If you could do whatever you wanted with the future, you wouldn't need my children to make me stop."
Ichigo threw him.
Yhwach hit the street hard enough to bury himself beneath it.
Ichigo landed at the crater's edge.
Tensa Zangetsu rested against his shoulder.
"So keep smiling," Ichigo said. His voice carried down into the dust.
A shadow spread across the bottom of the crater.
Yhwach rose from it slowly.
Blood darkened his teeth when he smiled again.
Ichigo's eyes went cold.
Yhwach stepped backward. The shadow climbed around him.
"Struggle Harder" The quincy king said through a bloody grin.
The shadow closed.
Ichigo stood at the edge of the crater for several seconds.
His shoulders were rigid.
His right hand trembled once around the hilt of his sword.
Then another explosion shook the district.
This one was closer.
Ichigo turned.
A column of blue fire rose beyond the damaged Fourth Division wall.
Dozens of Soldat poured through a breach in the southern avenue, driving a scattered group of Shinigami backward. At their center walked a Quincy officer carrying a broad reishi shield
large enough to cover most of his body. Arrows hammered into the retreating line while two Shinigami dragged a wounded third between them.
The war had not waited for Ichigo's family crisis.
Ichigo looked back toward Hephaestus.
She was still where he had left her.
She had also acquired a sword.
A wounded Shinigami sat beside her while Hephaestus used one hand to reshape a broken section of his blade into a crude brace for her leg. The soldier stared at the glowing metal with open amazement.
Hephaestus noticed Ichigo looking.
She pointed toward the breach.
"Your people require you."
Ichigo's jaw tightened.
"You're hurt."
"And currently stationary. They are neither."
A Quincy arrow struck the wall above her head.
Hephaestus looked up at the new hole.
Then she looked back at Ichigo.
"I shall revise my statement. I am mostly stationary."
Ichigo almost argued.
The retreating Shinigami line broke.
He moved.
The first Soldat never saw him arrive.
Ichigo landed between the Quincy formation and the wounded Shinigami with enough force to crack the avenue beneath his feet. He did not release his reiatsu. There were too many friendlies around him for that.
Instead, he fought with the sword.
The lead Soldat thrust a reishi spear at his chest.
Ichigo knocked it aside with the back of his left hand and stepped forward at the same time. Tensa Zangetsu's pommel struck the soldier beneath the jaw. The man's feet left the ground.
A second Quincy fired from Ichigo's right.
Ichigo caught the bow arm at the wrist, pulled the shooter toward him, and turned his body so the next volley struck the Soldat's own shield instead of the Shinigami behind him.
He drove his shoulder into the man's chest.
Armor buckled.
Ichigo released him and ducked beneath a horizontal sword swing from the left. The Quincy officer with the broad shield had reached him.
The man swung the shield itself.
Ichigo leaned back just enough for the edge to pass in front of his nose. He stepped into the opening.
The officer tried to recover.
Ichigo's left hand caught the top of the shield.
His fingers sank into the reishi construct.
The officer's eyes widened.
Ichigo ripped the shield downward, pulling the Quincy off balance, then brought his knee up into the man's face.
The shield flickered.
Ichigo seized the opening and cut upward.
Tensa Zangetsu passed through the reishi shield from bottom to top.
The construct split in half.
The officer stumbled backward, staring at the ruined weapon.
"What are you?"
Ichigo raised an eyebrow.
"Busy."
He kicked the man through a wall.
Three Soldat attacked together.
Ichigo moved between them.
The first blade passed over his shoulder. He trapped the wielder's elbow under his arm, twisted, and used the man's body to block the second attack. The third Soldat tried to stab low.
Ichigo stepped on the sword.
The Quincy looked down.
That was enough.
Ichigo's free hand caught him by the face and drove him into the street.
The stone cratered around the man's head.
Ichigo released the first Soldat, spun Tensa Zangetsu once in his hand, and struck both remaining enemies with the flat of the blade hard enough to send them tumbling across the avenue.
The Shinigami behind him had stopped retreating.
A seated officer with blood covering one side of his uniform stared at Ichigo. "Captain Kurosaki?"
Ichigo looked over his shoulder.
"Can you stand?"
The officer glanced at his injured leg.
"Probably."
"That's not what I asked."
The man swallowed.
"Yes, sir."
"Good. Get your wounded behind the Fourth Division wall. Don't chase them. Hold the breach."
The officer nodded sharply.
"Yes, Captain!"
Ichigo turned back toward the Quincy line.
More were coming.
He exhaled slowly.
"Of course there are."
The next ten minutes became violence measured in feet.
Ichigo could have erased the avenue.
He did not.
Every large technique risked the wounded behind him, the medics inside Fourth Division, or Hephaestus sitting less than two streets away. So he reduced himself to movement, steel, and control.
A Quincy fired from a balcony. Ichigo stepped behind a stone lantern, let the arrow destroy it, then used the cloud of powdered stone to hide his approach. He appeared on the balcony, struck the archer in the stomach with the hilt of Zangetsu, and caught the man's collar before he fell over the railing.
"Stay down."
Ichigo dropped him onto the balcony floor.
A second arrow came from across the street.
Ichigo turned the unconscious Soldat onto his side, stepped onto the railing, and jumped. He crossed the street without Shunpo.
The opposing archer panicked and fired repeatedly.
Ichigo twisted between the first two arrows. The third grazed his sleeve. He cut the fourth. The fifth passed beneath his raised knee.
He landed directly in front of the shooter.
The Quincy stared up at him.
Ichigo tapped the man's forehead with two fingers.
"Bakudo number one. Sai."
The Soldat's arms snapped behind his back.
Ichigo blinked.
"Huh. Haven't used that in a while."
The Quincy fell face-first onto the roof.
Ichigo stepped around him.
A roar from below drew his attention.
The shield officer had climbed out of the wall.
His face was bloody, and a larger construct now covered both arms.
"KUROSAKI!"
Ichigo looked down from the roof.
"You again?"
The officer charged.
Ichigo jumped down to meet him.
The Quincy threw a right hook reinforced by the reishi gauntlet.
Ichigo slipped outside the punch.
His sword stayed sheathed against his shoulder.
He struck the inside of the officer's elbow with his left palm, redirecting the arm past him. His right foot hooked behind the man's ankle. Ichigo pulled the arm forward while sweeping the leg.
The much larger Quincy hit the street on his back.
Before he could rise, Ichigo planted one sandal on the center of his chest. "Stay. Down."
The officer's gauntlet flared.
Ichigo increased the pressure of his foot.
Stone cracked beneath the man's shoulders.
The gauntlet faded.
"Good choice."
Ichigo stepped away.
The Shinigami line had reformed behind him.
Kidou users occupied the windows. Medics were moving the last wounded through the breach. The surviving Quincy began pulling back toward the next intersection.
Ichigo did not follow.
He watched until they disappeared.
Only then did he turn toward Hephaestus.
She was no longer alone.
Urahara had arrived.
His striped hat was missing.
That bothered Ichigo almost as much as the blood on the man's coat.
Yoruichi stood beside him with one sleeve burned away and a shallow cut across her cheek. Both were looking at Hephaestus's leg.
Ichigo landed beside them.
"How bad?"
Urahara looked up.
His usual smile was absent.
"Fixable. Painful, but fixable. Lady Hephaestus has already done half of our work for us." Hephaestus rested her head against the wall.
"I dislike being praised for immobilizing my own tibia. It suggests my evening has gone poorly."
Yoruichi snorted.
"That's one way to put it."
Ichigo crouched in front of his wife.
Hephaestus immediately searched his face.
"Yhwach?"
"Gone."
Her eye narrowed.
"Escaped?"
Ichigo hesitated.
"I let him leave."
Urahara's attention sharpened.
Hephaestus did not accuse him.
Ichigo rested his forearms on his knees.
"He threatened Kazui and Senna. Said there were futures where they died if I kept attacking him. I couldn't tell if he was bluffing."
Hephaestus's fingers slowly curled against her thigh.
"Then allowing him to depart was the correct decision."
Ichigo looked at her.
"You don't sound happy about it."
"I am not happy about any portion of this conversation. That does not make your decision incorrect."
She reached forward and placed her hand against his cheek.
Her thumb brushed a streak of dust from beneath his eye.
"You chose our children over your anger. I would expect nothing less from their father." Ichigo covered her hand with his.
For the first time since she had told him the children were gone, some of the tension left his shoulders.
Urahara cleared his throat quietly.
Ichigo looked over.
The scientist's expression made the tension return.
"What?"
Urahara glanced toward the battlefield before answering.
"We have several problems."
Yoruichi folded her arms.
"That's an understatement."
Urahara nodded.
"The Quincy are still occupying almost a third of the western districts. Mayuri has identified several shadow routes but cannot close them without risking the structures around them. The casualty stations are overflowing. Zaraki is currently pursuing something large enough that I would prefer not to know what it is."
Ichigo waited.
Urahara's eyes moved toward Hephaestus.
"And approximately seven minutes ago, one of my instruments detected a dimensional resonance from Gekai."
Hephaestus sat straighter despite her leg.
"From Orario?"
"Yes."
Ichigo's expression changed.
Urahara reached into his sleeve and removed a cracked rectangular device. A small screen flickered to life.
On it was a black symbol.
A dragon wrapped around a circle.
Hephaestus stared at it.
Ichigo's hand tightened around Zangetsu.
Urahara watched both of them.
"I assume you recognize it."
Ichigo nodded slowly.
"We found something with that mark before all this started."
Hephaestus's face had become very still.
"The Black Dragon."
A scream rose from another street.
Yoruichi looked toward it.
"We can discuss dragons after we stop the city from falling apart."
Ichigo stood.
"She's right."
Hephaestus pushed one hand against the wall and tried to rise.
Three people spoke at once.
"No."
She froze halfway up.
Ichigo, Urahara, and Yoruichi stared at her.
Hephaestus stared back.
"I beg your pardon?"
Ichigo pointed at her leg.
"Sit."
"Ichigo-"
"Your bone is outside your leg."
Hephaestus looked down.
"A temporary inconvenience."
Yoruichi barked out a laugh.
Urahara rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Lady Hephaestus, with the greatest possible respect, Captain Kurosaki is correct." Hephaestus's eye moved between the three of them.
"I find this alliance deeply offensive."
Ichigo leaned down and kissed her forehead.
"Be offended from Fourth Division."
Her expression softened despite herself.
"Return to me in one piece."
Ichigo straightened.
"Same rule for you."
"I am being carried to a hospital. I suspect my odds are favorable." Another explosion shook the street.
Ichigo looked toward the smoke.
"You'd be surprised."
Then he was gone.
()()()()()()()()()()()()(Western Seireitei - Forty Minutes Later)()()()()()()()()()()()()
The western district smelled like wet stone, blood, and burned paper. Mirba landed on the remains of a gatehouse and immediately had to duck. A blue arrow passed over her blonde hair and buried itself in the roof behind her. "That was close," Ren called from below.
Mirba looked down at him.
Ren was crouched behind an overturned supply wagon with half a dozen Fourth Division medics. His dark hair was powdered white from plaster, and a cut above his eyebrow had painted one side of his face red.
Mirba's eyes narrowed.
"If you have enough breath to comment, Ren, you have enough breath to move."
"I was moving. Emotionally." Ren said, getting up from a knee.
Acero appeared beside the wagon.
Unlike Ren, he looked irritatingly composed. Dust covered the shoulders of his coat, but his breathing remained even and his sword was clean except for a thin line of blood near the guard.
Acero glanced toward the intersection ahead.
"Captain, twelve Quincy beyond the next wall. Four archers on the roofline. Two injured Shinigami are pinned in the courtyard between us."
Mirba's attention left Ren immediately.
She crouched on the gatehouse roof and studied the street.
"Can you reach the wounded?"
Acero followed her line of sight.
"Yes. The question is whether the archers permit me to return."
Ren wiped blood away from his eyebrow with the back of his hand.
"I can annoy them."
Acero looked at him.
"You are uniquely qualified."
Ren grinned.
Mirba did not.
She had already drawn her sword.
"Ren, take the roof. Do not pursue if they withdraw. Acero, retrieve the wounded. I will break the street formation."
Ren's grin disappeared.
"Got it."
Acero nodded once.
"Understood."
Mirba stepped off the roof.
The Quincy below saw her falling.
Four bows came up.
Mirba's left hand opened.
Heat gathered around her palm.
"Supernova."
She did not throw the spell at the soldiers.
She threw it into the street between them.
The sphere struck the pavement and erupted upward.
White stone became a wall of glowing fragments. The Quincy formation broke instinctively, shields turning toward the explosion.
Mirba landed inside their line.
Her boots hit hard.
She drove her shoulder into the nearest Soldat before he could lower his shield. The man stumbled backward. Mirba stepped with him, keeping herself too close for his bow to be useful, and struck the side of his helmet with her sword's pommel.
A second Quincy attacked from her right.
Mirba saw the movement in the reflection of the first man's armor.
She turned.
Her blade caught the incoming sword near the guard.
The Soldat pushed.
Mirba gave ground for one step.
Then she stopped.
Her expression tightened with effort.
"Stallius."
Strength flooded her limbs.
She shoved.
The Soldat's sword flew from his hand.
Mirba caught him across the chest with a controlled slash that opened his armor without cutting deeply enough to kill him. He fell backward clutching the wound.
An arrow came from the roof.
Mirba heard Ren shout.
"DOWN!"
She dropped flat.
A knife spun over her and struck the arrow in midair.
Both weapons changed direction and disappeared into a shopfront.
Mirba looked up.
Ren stood on the opposite roof with another knife already in his hand.
He gave her an exaggerated bow.
"You're welcome."
Mirba's mouth tightened.
"Focus."
"I am extremely focused."
A Quincy arrow struck the chimney beside Ren and showered him with bricks. Ren vanished behind it.
Mirba sighed.
"Debatable."
Then the remaining Soldat reached her.
She met them head-on.
Mirba caught the first sword on the flat of her own blade.
The impact jarred her wrist.
A second Soldat tried to circle behind her. She shifted her left foot, keeping both opponents inside her peripheral vision, then shoved the first man's weapon upward and stepped beneath his arm.
Her elbow struck his ribs.
Armor bent inward.
The Soldat grunted and folded just enough for Mirba to seize the back of his collar. She pulled him across her body as the second Quincy fired a short reishi bolt.
The bolt struck his companion's shoulder instead.
Mirba released him.
"Apologies," she said, though her expression suggested she felt none.
The shooter stared.
Mirba crossed the distance and punched him in the mouth.
Above the street, Ren moved from roof to roof with less grace than Yoruichi and considerably more noise.
He slid down a slanted section of tile, kicked off a chimney, and caught the gutter of the next building with one hand. An arrow struck where his head had been.
Ren swung beneath the ledge.
"You people really don't like visitors!"
The Quincy archer leaned over the roof to fire again.
Ren's free hand snapped upward.
A thin throwing blade struck the bow at its center.
The reishi weapon flickered.
Ren pulled himself onto the roof while the archer tried to reform it.
"That's cheating," the Quincy hissed.
Ren drew his short sword.
"My friend, I have spent most of my adult life surrounded by people stronger than me. Cheating is called adapting."
The archer lunged.
Ren sidestepped.
He did not block the blade. He caught the man's sleeve, continued the direction of the attack, and guided him toward the roof edge.
The Soldat realized what was happening and planted his feet.
Ren's eyes widened.
"Oh. You're heavier than you look."
The Quincy elbowed him in the stomach.
Air left Ren's lungs.
He staggered backward.
The archer turned with his sword raised.
Ren threw a roof tile at his face.
The Soldat flinched.
Ren kicked him in the knee.
The man dropped.
Ren stepped behind him, hooked an arm beneath his chin, and pulled until the Quincy stopped struggling.
He lowered the unconscious soldier onto the tiles.
"See? Adapting."
A shadow fell across him.
Ren looked up.
A second archer stood on the neighboring roof with a bow already drawn. "Ah."
The arrow released.
A sword intercepted it.
Acero landed between the two rooftops, one foot touching the narrow wooden beam that joined them. His coat moved once in the wind and settled.
Ren stared at him.
"Weren't you supposed to be rescuing people?"
Acero glanced down.
Below them, two wounded Shinigami were being carried toward the Fourth Division line by medics.
"I finished."
Ren looked offended.
"Already?"
"You were taking your time."
The second archer fired again.
Acero stepped from the beam.
He dropped between the buildings.
The arrow followed.
At the last moment, Acero pushed off the wall with one foot and changed direction. The projectile buried itself in the masonry. Acero rose along the opposite wall, caught the roof edge, and vaulted onto the archer's building.
The Soldat drew a sword.
Acero's own blade remained low.
The Quincy attacked first.
A downward cut.
Acero moved half a step to the side.
The sword passed beside his shoulder.
He struck the attacker's wrist with the guard of his weapon, then turned his hips and placed the edge of his sword against the man's throat.
The Soldat froze.
Acero's expression remained calm.
"Drop it."
The sword fell.
"Kick it away."
The Quincy obeyed.
Acero struck him once behind the ear.
The man collapsed.
Ren climbed onto the roof behind him.
"You know, sometimes I think you make the rest of us look bad on purpose." Acero sheathed his sword.
"I assure you, Ren, you require no assistance from me."
Ren placed a hand over his heart.
"Cruel."
A blast of heat rolled over both men.
They turned.
Mirba stood in the middle of the intersection below.
Half the Quincy formation was down. The remaining soldiers had retreated behind a hastily formed barrier of blue reishi. Mirba's blonde hair had come loose from its knot and now hung across one side of her face. A shallow cut marked her left cheek. She wiped the blood away with her thumb and looked at it with irritation.
"Ren! Acero!"
Both men looked down.
Mirba pointed toward the retreating Quincy.
"Leave them. We have our wounded."
Ren blinked.
"We're not chasing?"
Mirba looked toward the smoke hanging over the next district.
Her breathing was heavier now. The strength spell had begun to fade, and she flexed her sword hand once to work feeling back into her fingers.
"Lord Ichigo ordered the line held. We are not turning a rescue into a pursuit because our pride is offended."
Acero nodded approvingly.
"Sound."
Ren sighed.
"I hate when everyone gets responsible at the same time."
Mirba looked up at him.
"Come down."
"Yes, Captain."
They regrouped near the broken wagon.
One of the medics Mirba had protected was wrapping a bandage around the arm of a young Shinigami who looked barely old enough to have graduated from the Academy. His hands would not stop shaking.
Mirba crouched beside him.
The boy looked up quickly.
"Ma'am?"
Mirba's expression softened.
"What is your name?"
"H-Harada. Third seat auxiliary, ma'am."
Mirba glanced at the insignia on his torn uniform.
"You held this street while wounded, Harada. That is enough for today. Let the healers work."
The young man swallowed hard.
"But the western line-"
"Still exists," Mirba said. Her voice remained firm, though she lowered it enough that the conversation belonged only to them. "You are permitted to survive the battle you have already fought."
Harada stared at her.
Then his shoulders dropped.
"Yes, ma'am."
Mirba stood.
Ren watched her from a few feet away.
He did not make a joke.
Acero noticed that too.
A familiar pressure rolled over the district.
All three turned at once.
Ichigo landed in the intersection.
His shihakusho was torn at the shoulder. Blood marked one sleeve, though none of it appeared to be his. Tensa Zangetsu rested against his back.
Mirba's posture straightened.
"Lord Ichigo."
Ichigo looked over the wounded, the medics, then the unconscious Quincy on the street. "You three okay?"
Ren raised one hand.
"Emotionally devastated."
Ichigo looked at the cut on his forehead.
"Physically."
"Oh. Fine."
Mirba sheathed her sword.
"The breach is secure for the moment. Acero recovered two wounded from the courtyard. Ren removed the archers."
Ren looked pleased.
Mirba added, "Eventually."
Ren's face fell.
Ichigo almost smiled.
Then Mirba saw his expression properly.
Her own changed.
"What happened?"
Ichigo looked toward the medics.
"Not here."
Acero's gaze sharpened.
He did not ask another question.
Mirba nodded.
"Understood."
They moved into the shell of a nearby records office. Half the roof was missing, but the walls remained intact and the interior had already been cleared of casualties. Dust covered the floor. A broken desk had been pushed against the doorway to give them some privacy from the street.
Ichigo waited until Ren pulled the desk back into place.
Mirba stood across from him with her arms folded. Acero remained near the doorway, listening to the battle outside even while giving Ichigo his attention. Ren leaned against the wall, though the casual posture disappeared the moment Ichigo spoke.
"Kazui and Senna were taken."
Mirba's face went blank.
Ren stopped breathing for a second.
Acero's eyes narrowed.
"By whom?" Acero asked.
Ichigo rested one hand on the hilt of Zangetsu. "Quincy. Hephaestus heard three names during the attack. Gerard, Lille, Askin. Lille left with the kids. Yhwach knows where they are."
Mirba stepped forward.
"Lady Hephaestus?"
"Alive. Hurt. Fourth Division has her."
Relief passed across Mirba's face, followed immediately by anger.
She looked toward the open section of roof as though she could see Yhwach through it. "Then we retrieve them."
Ichigo nodded once.
"We will. But not by running straight into whatever trap he built."
Ren pushed away from the wall.
"You saying that is terrifying."
Ichigo looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because you're usually the guy who runs straight into the trap and punches whoever set it." Mirba turned her head.
"Ren."
"I'm not criticizing. It works a lot."
Ichigo rubbed his forehead.
"Yhwach can see futures. Or some version of that. He threatened the kids if I kept attacking. I don't know what he can actually do yet."
Acero's expression remained controlled, but his attention had become absolute. "He used the children to restrict your available choices."
Ichigo nodded.
Mirba's jaw tightened at the phrasing.
Acero noticed.
"I mean no disrespect, Captain. I am describing the tactical purpose."
Mirba drew a slow breath.
"I know."
Acero continued.
"If Yhwach truly possessed unlimited control over the future, he would not require hostages. The fact that he took them suggests either a limitation in his ability or a limitation in what he is willing to risk."
Ichigo pointed at him.
"That's what I thought."
Ren scratched his chin.
"So our good news is the evil future wizard isn't completely omnipotent." "Essentially," Acero said.
"Horrible good news."
"Most useful information is."
Mirba looked at Ichigo.
"What do you need from us?"
Ichigo hesitated.
For years, that question had usually ended with him telling everyone to stay behind while he handled the problem.
He looked at the three people in front of him.
Mirba had blood on her cheek and dust in her blonde hair. Ren's sleeve was torn, and he was pretending the wound above his eyebrow did not hurt. Acero stood as straight as ever, but his left hand rested closer to his sword than normal.
They had just fought a battle without him.
They were still standing.
"I need you to help keep Seireitei from collapsing while Urahara figures out where the kids went," Ichigo said. "And there's something else."
Mirba waited.
"Urahara picked up a signal from Orario. Black Dragon symbol."
The room went quiet.
Ren's humor vanished completely.
"Our Orario?"
"Yeah."
Mirba touched the old Familia insignia beneath her armor without seeming to realize she was doing it.
Acero's gaze lowered in thought.
"How long since we received reliable information from Gekai?"
"Too long," Ichigo answered.
Mirba looked toward the doorway.
"Then we have two homes under attack."
Ichigo did not correct her.
That was exactly what it felt like.
()()()()()()()()()()()()(Fourth Division - Evening)()()()()()()()()()()()()
Fourth Division had stopped resembling a hospital hours ago.
Every room was occupied. Futons covered hallways. The courtyard had been divided into treatment lanes using torn sheets and wooden poles. Shinigami with minor wounds sat against the walls while healers moved between them carrying basins of red water, bandages, and Kidou instruments.
The smell of antiseptic fought a losing battle against smoke drifting in from the city. Hephaestus sat on a treatment bed near an open window.
Her leg had been reset.
She had disliked the process immensely.
The healer responsible had been a small woman with glasses and the terrifying confidence of someone who had long ago stopped caring whether her patients were gods.
"Do not move," the healer had said.
Hephaestus had stared at her.
"Young lady, I am the goddess of the forge. I have endured molten bronze across half my body."
The healer had put both hands on Hephaestus's leg.
"Wonderful. This will still hurt."
It had.
Now a rigid brace ran from Hephaestus's ankle to above her knee. Healing Kidou glowed beneath the bandages in a faint green lattice.
She sat with her hands folded in her lap and watched the courtyard.
Her face was composed.
Her right thumb kept rubbing the edge of her wedding ring.
Yoruichi noticed.
She leaned against the window frame with her arms folded.
"You're going to polish that thing down to nothing."
Hephaestus looked at her hand.
The motion stopped.
"An old habit."
Yoruichi studied her.
"You're scared."
Hephaestus's eye returned to the courtyard.
"Of course I am."
There was no embarrassment in the admission.
"My children are prisoner to a man who invaded this realm with an army and appears capable of observing possible futures. My husband is somewhere beyond that wall fighting said army. My leg has been broken, my home is in ruins, and Kisuke has informed me that something associated with an ancient dragon is stirring in the world I left behind."
Hephaestus rested both hands on her knees.
"Fear would be a rational response."
Yoruichi smiled faintly.
"Most gods I've met hate admitting that."
"Most gods have spent too long confusing immortality with invulnerability." the smithing goddess said whilst a wounded Shinigami cried out in the hall.
Hephaestus's expression tightened for a moment.
"I have never enjoyed that mistake."
Footsteps approached.
Ichigo appeared in the doorway.
He stopped when he saw her.
Hephaestus watched the tension leave his face by degrees.
"You look terrible," she said.
Ichigo looked down at himself.
"I was gonna say the same thing."
Hephaestus raised an eyebrow.
Ichigo immediately reconsidered.
"You look beautiful."
Yoruichi covered her mouth to hide a laugh.
Hephaestus's expression softened.
"A remarkable recovery."
Ichigo crossed the room and sat beside her bed.
His hand went to the brace around her leg.
He did not touch it. His fingers hovered an inch away while his eyes traced the bandages. "They fixed it?"
"They have begun to. I am informed that attempting to walk on it would be 'idiotic.'"
Ichigo looked toward the hallway.
"Who said that?"
"The healer."
"I like her."
Hephaestus gave him a dry look.
"Naturally."
Ichigo rested his elbows on his knees.
For a few seconds, neither spoke.
Yoruichi pushed away from the window.
"I'm going to find Kisuke."
Ichigo looked over.
Yoruichi met his eyes and nodded once before leaving.
The door slid closed behind her.
Hephaestus watched Ichigo's shoulders.
They were too high.
His hands were clasped together tightly enough for his knuckles to pale. "Ichigo."
He looked at her.
She patted the bed beside her.
"Closer."
"I'm right here."
"Closer."
Ichigo shifted until his hip touched the edge of the mattress.
Hephaestus reached up and took his face between both hands.
His eyes closed.
The gesture was familiar. Domestic. Almost absurd in a hospital overflowing with casualties from a war.
That was why she did it.
"Tell me what you are thinking," Hephaestus said.
Ichigo opened his eyes.
"I'm thinking I should've been there."
"At the residence."
"Yeah."
Hephaestus's thumbs rested beneath his eyes.
"You were defending Seireitei."
"I was defending the wrong place."
Her expression hardened.
"Do not insult the dead by saying that."
Ichigo blinked.
Hephaestus lowered her hands but kept hold of his wrists.
"Look outside."
Ichigo glanced toward the courtyard.
"Those people are alive because you were here. Some are injured because you could not reach them in time. Others are dead despite everything you did. That does not make their defense meaningless."
She squeezed his wrists.
"Nor does the fact that our children were taken mean you chose incorrectly by protecting thousands of others."
Ichigo looked down.
"Doesn't make it feel better."
"No."
Hephaestus's voice softened.
"It does not."
She let the silence sit for a moment.
"I blame myself as well."
Ichigo's head came up immediately.
"Don't."
"Interesting."
He frowned.
"What?"
"You grant me mercy you refuse to grant yourself."
Ichigo opened his mouth.
Hephaestus lifted one finger.
"I fought them, Ichigo. I failed to prevent Lille from leaving with Kazui and Senna. Gerard broke my leg. I watched our son try to protect his sister while I could not reach him."
Her voice remained controlled, but her eye shone.
"There is a portion of me that has replayed those moments every minute since you arrived. It whispers that I should have been faster. Stronger. More ruthless."
Ichigo's expression softened.
Hephaestus looked directly at him.
"And I know that voice is grief pretending to be reason."
Ichigo stared at her.
She leaned forward until her forehead touched his.
"We lost a battle. We did not lose our children."
His breath shook once.
"We're getting them back."
"Yes."
"No matter what."
"Within reason."
Ichigo pulled back enough to look at her.
Hephaestus's mouth curved faintly.
"I am still the responsible parent."
"Debatable."
"I shall break your other leg."
Ichigo smiled for the first time in hours.
It did not last long, but Hephaestus saw it.
That was enough.
A knock came from the door.
Urahara stepped inside carrying his hat.
He had found it.
It was burned along one side.
Ichigo stared.
"Your hat."
Urahara looked down at it sadly.
"A casualty of war."
"You look naked without it."
Hephaestus turned toward Ichigo.
"That is an unsettling sentence."
Urahara placed the damaged hat back on his head.
"Better?"
"A little."
Urahara's smile faded.
He closed the door.
"I found the children."
Ichigo stood so quickly the stool behind him fell over.
Hephaestus's hands tightened around the blanket.
"Where?" they asked together.
Urahara raised both hands.
"I found a trace.."
Ichigo's expression darkened.
"Explain."
Urahara took a small device from his sleeve and placed it on the bedside table. A three-dimensional pattern of blue lines appeared above it.
"Lille did not simply move through ordinary shadow. The passage descended through several layers of compressed reishi. Think of them as rooms built behind rooms. Wandenreich occupies one layer. There is another beneath it."
Hephaestus leaned closer.
"And the children are there?"
"I believe so."
Urahara pointed to two tiny pulses inside the projection.
One was orange.
One was gold.
Hephaestus stopped breathing.
Ichigo gripped the edge of the table.
"That's them."
"The signatures are faint," Urahara said. "But yes. I am reasonably confident." Hephaestus closed her eye.
Her shoulders trembled once.
"Alive."
Ichigo sat beside her again and took her hand.
"Alive."
Urahara gave them several seconds before continuing.
"There is another complication."
Ichigo looked up.
"Of course there is."
Urahara touched the projection.
A third pulse appeared beneath the children.
It was red.
The shape around it resembled scales.
Hephaestus's relief vanished.
"The dragon."
"Something associated with it," Urahara corrected. "The same resonance I detected from Gekai is touching the layer where Kazui and Senna are being held."
Ichigo's eyes narrowed.
"Yhwach working with it?"
Urahara shook his head.
"I do not know."
Hephaestus stared at the red pulse.
"Then we must not assume alliance merely because two enemies occupy the same board." Urahara nodded.
"Exactly."
Ichigo looked between the orange, gold, and red lights.
"How long until you can open a route?"
Urahara hesitated.
Ichigo noticed.
"Kisuke."
"Safely? Hours. Perhaps longer."
"Unsafely?"
Hephaestus squeezed Ichigo's hand.
He looked at her.
Her expression said everything.
Ichigo sighed.
"Fine. Safely."
Urahara looked genuinely surprised.
"My, my. Marriage has done wonders."
Ichigo pointed at the door.
"Get out."
Urahara smiled.
"Gladly. But first, there is someone you should speak with."
He opened the door.
Cassandra stood in the hallway.
Yoruichi was beside her.
Cassandra looked exhausted. Her dark hair hung loose around her shoulders, and both hands were wrapped around a cup she did not appear to remember holding.
Hephaestus's expression softened.
"Cassandra."
The young woman entered slowly.
Her eyes moved from Hephaestus's leg to Ichigo's face.
"I-I heard about Kazui and Senna."
Ichigo nodded.
Cassandra swallowed.
"I saw something."
The room became quiet.
Cassandra looked down at the cup.
"A road made of shadow. Three doors. The first one opened easily." Her fingers tightened.
"Everyone who went through it died."
Ichigo's jaw tightened.
Cassandra looked up at him.
"Please...do not follow the king through the first shadow."
Silence.
Ichigo studied her face.
"Anything else?"
Cassandra shook her head.
"No. I tried. It hurt."
A thin line of dried blood was visible beneath one nostril.
Ichigo's expression softened.
"Then stop trying."
Cassandra blinked.
"B-But-"
"You warned us. That's enough."
He looked toward Urahara.
"We're not building the whole plan around one prophecy. But we don't ignore it either." Urahara nodded.
"Reasonable."
Cassandra's shoulders loosened.
Hephaestus held out one hand.
Cassandra stepped closer and took it.
"Thank you," Hephaestus said.
Cassandra's eyes watered.
"We'll get them back."
Hephaestus squeezed her hand.
"Yes. We shall."
Yoruichi gently touched Cassandra's shoulder.
"Come on. You need sleep."
Cassandra nodded.
She left with Yoruichi.
Ichigo watched the door close.
"First shadow kills us."
Urahara adjusted his hat.
"Which makes me considerably less interested in testing the first route I found." Ichigo looked at him.
"That was the first route?"
"Yes."
"Great."
Urahara smiled without humor.
"Quite."