brass pt 2

[convault]

Brass
Series: Bleach
Characters: Ikkaku/Tatsuki; lots of others
notes

Regardless of his reputation of belonging absolutely to the Zaraki Division, being a rude, crude thug and generally an all-around ass, Ikkaku does have the manners to not complain about any hospitality he is willingly given, at no charge. One of the things any soul reaper who has spent enough time in his division will learn is that they would be spending a whole lot of time in 4th. As such, only inexperienced recruits actually believed that the entire division was full of weaklings who deserved to be picked on all the time. Ikkaku was on first-name terms with most of the higher-ranked officers, and besides the occasional ribbing (Iemura describes it as 'terrorizing'), left the lower seats alone. He can't do much for the Asano household, so he just does what he can. Like helping out with groceries, cleaning up after himself... not complaining when Mizuho decides to lend him her old boyfriend's fruity shirts. He understood all that. He was also about ninety-nine percent damn sure that Yumichika encouraged Mizuho to do all that weird crap, which wasn't part of the deal. Bastard. Pink is, in fact, a Spring color. It doesn't suit him. Mizuho doesn't care (and his only other option was to walk around shirtless which he personally wouldn't have minded, but Yumichika would complain that Mizuho-chan wouldn't be able to get anything done if he did, which was good enough for him). Yumichika told him not to complain about her forcing him to try on shirts for the rest of the night since they would have a chance to buy something he'd willingly wear soon enough, once activity on the assignment dropped off a bit. Ikkaku woke up with Yumichika two hours before Mizuho's alarm was due to go off (and yes, he had checked). Yumichika made riceballs, left them on the kitchen table with a note telling Keigo and Mizuho to enjoy your sundays! while the two of them headed on over to Urahara's shop. Ikkaku tried to remember the streets as they walked (haven't they ever heard of street names around here?) but he lost track about halfway and decided to just follow Yumichika next time he left the house. They walked almost shoulder to shoulder in a swirling mass of Ikkaku's reiatsu, with only occasional comments passing between them, and no real conversation. Ikkaku had spent most of his time in Rukongai blasting his reiatsu everywhere so strong guys might get pissed off and challenge him. In Karakura, whenever he hadn't been specifically told to keep it under wraps, Ikkaku used it to attract hollows. He covered Yumichika with it to squash out his friend's reiatsu -- which everyone back home thought was kinda sweet, that Ikkaku selflessly drew attention to himself instead of letting his companions get hurt, but Yumichika thinks it's a dickish thing to do. He isn't the only one in their pair who likes killing hollows, and the only reason Yumichika puts up with it is because he hates when fights get ugly. And since hollows always went for Ikkaku first, it would be pretty dickish in return to just jump in. They reached Urahara's shop without incident. Ikkaku had already mastered the art of baiting strong hollows while scaring off weak ones, but he supposed they were all on vacation today or something. Ururu met them at the door and led them into the basement where Ikkaku picked a flat, shady rock to commune with Hoozukimaru on and Yumichika found a nice, shady rock to try and break his zanpakutou on. Hoozukimaru hovered behind the edge of the roof of an old feudal-era style house. Ikkaku didn't seem to notice -- didn't turn around or grin at him or anything -- but when Hoozukimaru rushed him from behind, Ikkaku blocked with the still-sheathed sword in his hand before swiping at him. Hoozukimaru huffed. The blast of wind was enough to force Ikkaku back a step, but he punched Hoozukimaru lightly on the nose anyway. "The hell, I was lookin' for you." Weak as ever, partner. "I'm not the one who ends up breakin' every time I release." I'm far easier to put back together than you are. "Alright now?" Hoozukimaru pressed his ears back against his head, coiled against the ground and launched himself into the air, twisted, then rushed back down to meet Ikkaku at eye level again. I'll be fine as long as you don't call me out again for a good long while. Ikkaku smirked back -- Hoozukimaru was at full strength already -- and then called him a lazy bastard. "Gonna get fat just sittin' around." Not nearly as fast as you will. How's not getting any stronger working out for you? "I haven't been getting weaker." Hoozukimaru bared his teeth and flicked the tip of his tail. Prove it to me, partner. They fought (Ikkaku figures it's never a spar with Hoozukimaru, since neither of them have any problems with trying to kill each other at full power) until Hoozukimaru had Ikkaku pinned on his back with a claw hovering just above his windpipe and Ikkaku had Hoozukimaru's eyeball at broken sword-point and the scabbard hooked behind his neck. "Lucky for you, my hands're steady as rocks." Then they'll match the density of your head. But you won't get stronger just fighting me. Hoozukimaru sounded satisfied -- not pleased, but he could understand -- when Ikkaku finally pulled out of his meditation. Yumichika's phone went off just as Ikkaku cracked open his eyes and stood up to stretch out his legs. Yumichika jumped about three feet into the air -- he'd been in a very deeply personal debate with his soul cutter, for one thing -- and nodded to Ikkaku to confirm that it was a hollow. Meanwhile, Tatsuki could make out a blurry figure the size of a small car knocking out her judo clubmates one by one as they drew near it. She had a pretty good idea of what that thing was -- or at least, what it could do -- so when something grazed her elbow, Tatsuki batted it away and braced herself against a nearby telephone pole. If nothing else, at least her back wouldn't be open. Besides, Tatsuki thought it was focusing better the more she tried to pick out its outlines. Where the landscape blurred, where the thing started and everything else began -- after a few seconds, she could see it clearly; ugly mask and all. It didn't look too tough. Tatsuki cracked her knuckles and kicked the dust off her sneakers. She bet she could totally kick its ass. Tatsuki landed exactly three hits after the first dodge before the Hollow decided to get serious. Two were parry-counters to get close, the last was a palm heel strike to the mask that left a crack from the top edge to just between the holes she assumed were eyes. It was babbling; Tatsuki didn't bother trying to make out what it was saying or attempt to answer it in any way. It had attacked her friends, and it was going to pay big. That's all there was to it. At least, that's all there was to it before the thing whipped out a couple ball-and-tentacle type flails and slammed one straight into her torso. Then she took a moment to be grateful that she was used to those kinds of hits. Tatsuki dropped to one knee, gasping for air, before rolling out of the way of another incoming flail. She was wheezing a bit, but otherwise still kicking. Taking punishment wasn't one of her specialties, but you don't do karate for ten years and come out a piece of glass. But Tatsuki had a taste of this thing's strength and speed, and it was, if nothing else, predictable. She caught the next hit on her forearms and redirected most of the force behind it into the ground. That would probably bruise, but not much worse than a hard kick. She stamped the limb into the concrete and ground it with her heel until it disconnected and snapped back. The thing barely flinched, screeched a bit and then the ball stuck in the little crater at her feet exploded. It wasn't hot, not really, but bits and pieces of what felt suspiciously like bone buried themselves deep into the back of her right leg. It didn't hurt yet, but Tatsuki knew enough about getting hurt that it would start real soon. She didn't usually let fights piss her off, but it had just gotten personal. There was a tournament soon and Tatsuki needed that leg. Ikkaku and Yumichika were close enough to detect some passed-out humans, one not-passed-out-at-all human and, at this range, could pick the stink of Hollow out of the air even without searching for its reiatsu. Ikkaku had Yumichika scout the area for hollows that would be attracted to the fight and flashed across the roof of a few buildings to save the poor bastard who was about to get his soul eaten. He arrived at the scene in time to see Tatsuki spinning slowly in place (maybe she couldn't see it, or maybe just hadn't noticed its energy signature, crouched behind a car and ready to ambush her if she got close) and drew his sword. She whirled at the sound (Ikkaku vaguely wondered how the hell she could recognize the sound of a sword being drawn but not sense a hollow) and snapped, "Stay out of this!" before turning her attention to the car. Now that she had an idea of where the bony white bastard was, she could get on with beating it to a pulp. He wasn't too surprised that yet another human could see him -- Keigo had almost been a surprise. Ikkaku swore, then sheathed Hoozukimaru. He took a few seconds to try and gauge her condition -- spiritual energy high enough that she could see him and the hollow, erratic enough that it was obvious she'd never even tried using it before, left leg covered enough in blood that he couldn't really tell what sort of damage it had taken -- His hand dropped back to Hoozukimaru's hilt, ready to draw and intervene in case it got too dangerous. But Arisawa could handle herself (he would know, having been on the receiving end) and besides, he wasn't in the habit of cutting in on fights that weren't his. Yumichika was busy with another hollow, somewhere close by, and he could feel another one hurtling in the direction of the fight. The first Hollow stayed stubbornly behind the car. Tatsuki flexed her fingers and took off at a run, building up momentum to vault over and take it by surprise. The last Hollow finally showed up, fully intending to rush her off her feet before Ikkaku's reiatsu flared and it adjusted its path to go for the stronger, more appetizing energy. Arisawa's eyes flickered to him, briefly, as he deflected the Hollow's first blow with Hoozukimaru's scabbard and thrust his blade forward, shattering its mask. There would be time to mess around later, anyway. Tatsuki slipped into the same sort of deadly calm that won her tournaments and street fights, flipped over the hood of the car and landed hard on her hands and left leg, then charged the Hollow. She dodged two of the flails, pressed one hand against its mask and squeezed, pouring every last bit of concentration and determination into shattering it. Cracks spiderwebbed out from the first bit of damage she had left while the hollow began to thrash. Tatsuki let go, shifted back two steps, then kicked its head into the ground. It disintegrated. Tatsuki walked back around the car, then stopped in front of Ikkaku. She snagged the front of his uniform, scowled, and pulled his face down to get him at eye level. Her eyes were a little glazed, she had a pounding headache, her leg was starting to hurt, but Ikkaku was still having a hard time prying her fingers off of his shihakushou. "You're... wearing the same weird clothes as Ichigo when he fought that guy in white." Yumichika announced his arrival with the click of his sword being sheathed. "You saw that?" Tatsuki ignored the question. "And you held back when we fought." "I didn't. Results might be different if we fought again, though." Tatsuki blinked twice, didn't process a word of what Ikkaku felt only barely passed for a conversation, and let go of his uniform as she passed out. He caught her by the arms before she could hit the ground and hefted her over a shoulder, then motioned at her leg to Yumichika, who made a face and flashed to the roof of the school before the other students could wake up.

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