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Chapter 391: Chapter 354

And I didn\'t even have to resort to fighting him. Well, I admit I was a little enthused with the idea of a fight with that old man, but I had certain other priorities. If I was just on my own, I\'d probably be more open to the idea. But alas, it wasn\'t a good opportunity at this point in time.

It just further cemented my theory that Scáthach somehow infected me with her battle lust.

I don\'t recall myself anticipating a fight like this before I met her.

I suppose it doesn\'t help that a significant portion of the time we spend together is fighting. In a good natured sort of way, we haven\'t had a fight yet.

...which often leads to sex.

Oh well. Can\'t say I hate how things turned out. I could do without fights to the death and all that, but I do enjoy a good fight these days.

Speaking of fighting...

I finally tracked down where the others were after my little dive off one of the taller buildings in this place.

And I could hear the clashing of blades as I got closer.

"You\'re back." Yoruichi perked up from where she was sitting. And the fact that she was in her humanoid form was a little surprising.

"Hey, what\'s going on?" I asked cause....Ichigo was here fighting someone I recognized. That bald guy I met right outside the healing division.

"Dumbass one is fighting dumbass two." She explained.

"Noted."

"Fuck off." Ichigo shot back as he swung his oversized sword, making the bald guy bring up both his Zanpakutō and accompanying sheath to block it.

Though, he looked like he was having fun.

Uryū was standing against the wall being all quiet as he watched the fight quietly. I gave him a little nod and he returned it.

Chad was standing nearby Orihime with arms crossed, almost protectively.

But the young girl made me do a double take.

"Do it like this, and another pull here and that\'s about it."

I kind of stared for a moment as the guy I remember as Yumichika Ayasegawa was braiding Orihime\'s hair. He still had those weird eyebrow extensions, his most defining feature.

Well then.

She looked like she was enjoying it, so who was I to interrupt?

"Hey izzy." I smiled.

"Hello Wilhelm." She returned a beautiful smile herself. "Was your time productive?"

"Yup, managed to settle things on my end." I nodded happily. "So.....what\'s going on?"

"These two idiots found us after we found a corner to hide in to catch our breaths after..." Yoruichi began to speak up, but she glanced at Izzy and the words sort of died in her mouth. "After your Friend managed to neutralize a very threatening enemy."

"I didn\'t kill him." Izzy added.

"Oh, what happened?"

"I pushed him into the shadowy-space."

"The shadowy-space?"

"Hmm, there\'s a space that\'s parallel to this place. I merely pushed him there to give him a time out." She nodded.

"There is no such thing!" Yoruichi huffed.

"....I\'m confused?" I looked between them

"She insists that there is no shadow space connected to this Soul Society. Even though I saw people there and sent that spirit inside as well." Izzy shrugged.

"That\'s.....just ridiculous! I was the former commander of the Onmitsukidō for years! There isn\'t any secret spot in Soul Society that I don\'t know about."

"It\'s probably nothing important then." Izzy once more shrugged.

I guess it doesn\'t really matter.

"So, what\'s the deal with these two?" I asked, walking towards Orihime and co. "And it\'s good to see you again, Yumichika."

The man braiding Orihime\'s hair looked up. "It\'s a pleasure for me as well. I like your outfit, it suits you better than our uniform."

Well, he\'s always full of compliments. "Thanks, it\'s what I normally wear. What exactly is going on, if you don\'t mind me asking?"

"Oh nothing much. Ikkaku and I were just lucky and came across your little group. Ikkaku wanted to fight, well, you. But he called out for Kurosaki Ichigo and the young man over there answered." He paused as both the bald Shinigami and Ichigo were shouting at each other between blows. "Ikkaku of course didn\'t believe him and got annoyed and the young man seemed just as irate. This is the third round so far." He hummed.

"Right, proper introduction then? Wilhelm Henry Schweinorg."

"Yumichika Ayasegawa." He replied in amusement. "And this wonderful young lady here has been healing them up after each round so they keep going at it." He gave Orihime a little pat on the head. "Speaking of, you need to take better of your hair, darling. It\'s much too beautiful to have so many split ends. If I had known, I would have brought my brush collection with me, maybe some scissors....."

Didn\'t he say he\'s from the division that are basically battle maniacs? Then again, I don\'t know if I have any room to talk. And I guess everyone needs a hobby even if they enjoy fighting so much....

Orihime was enjoying it though, so whatever.

"Do you got next?" I asked.

"Or anyone else that wants to fight." He shrugged. "I wouldn\'t mind trying my hand at the traitor over there." He eyed Yoruichi.

"If you wanna get your ass kicked, then come on." Yoruichi snorted. "By the way, how\'d your little thing go?" Yoruichi asked.

"Good. Things went really good. Enough that we can move on if you want."

"Yeah, we should get going. I wanted to let Ichigo get a handle on someone moderately high up on a Division roster, but they\'re just kinda flailing around." Yoruichi grunted, disappearing in a burst of Shunpo.

Next thing everyone else knew, that Bald Shinigami was kneeling over with Yoruichi\'s fist in his stomach. Before the strawberry could protest, she already disappeared with his unconscious body and threw it on the ground next to Yumichika.

"Oh well, I was just about done anyways." The other Shinigami sighed, pushing himself up off his feet. "Just not my face, please."

"Please be gentle." Orihime pleaded rather cutely.

Yumichikia chuckled and made a beckoning gesture with his hand on his sword.

"Well, you got balls if nothing else." Yoruichi said with some small amount of respect. As the other Shinigami was expecting her, he did make a move the same time she did and flashed away with his own Shunpo as they clashed at high speeds. But Yoruichi only appeared a moment later with him over her shoulder as she tossed him onto the ground too. "He actually wasn\'t that bad. Could probably try for Lieutenant if he really wanted."

Might seem mean on the surface since the guy was being so hospitable, but it was actually to help the guy. If Yoruichi didn\'t do anything, they\'d have to answer questions about why they didn\'t try to capture the intruders.

At Least this way he can say that Yoruichi defeated him. And the power disparity meant that he wouldn\'t come under any real fire.

"Alright kiddos, gather around." I clapped my hands.

"You did what you needed?" Ichigo asked. "You said you were goin to talk to some people here for help, yeah?"

The eagerness on his face was obvious. The others too seemed to be getting a bit anxious. No idea how long they\'ve been sitting around here, but they\'re wanting to get back out there.

"I won\'t bore you with the details. Go wild."

"What?" Ichigo asked, perhaps the spokepersons mirroring their thoughts altogether.

"Run wild. Go rescue Rukia, cause some chaos, beat up anyone who gets in your way. I already made some moves somewhere else, your job now is to do what you came here to do." It\'d probably be better not to tell them the specifics.

"That\'s it?" He asked again. "Just....go ahead? No holding back?" He questioned again.

"Don\'t kill anyone if you can help it, but your safety is a priority. Otherwise, go at it."

He kind of looked at me suspiciously. Perhaps because I was advocating a more.....clandestine move originally and now I was telling them to do the opposite.

"One last warning though before you go." I stated, grabbing their full attention. "Rukia\'s execution was moved up. You got a week."

It\'s funny, that might seem like a significant amount of time, but this damn place was gigantic and a maze. Not to mention there are thousands of Shinigami between them and their friend.

"You\'re not coming with." Ishida spoke up.

"Correct." I didn\'t hide it. "I\'ll be attending to other things in the meantime."

"Alright." Ichigo breathed out. "Alright, that\'s enough time. Thanks for the heads up and the help so far. I know you were doing stuff to help in the background, so thanks again."

Well, we got off on a rocking footing, but...he\'s not a bad kid. "I have one slight request."

"What?"

"Don\'t just brute force everything. Be sneaky if you can, looking for openings to abuse. Maybe steal some uniforms and try passing off as Shinigami. See if you can\'t infiltrate a little bit. But if you have to, overpower anyone in your way as well." It would help with the whole thing I sold to gramps.

"And that would help?" Uryū asked a little skeptically.

"It would help for later."

"Alright, that\'s doable. Would help if we don\'t have to beat up so many people." Ichigo grunted. "Anything else?" He trapped his foot impatiently, but I don\'t think he was doing it intentionally.

Kid is the type to rush forwards without a second thought.

"Have at it." I gestured for them to go.

Ichigo looked at me and gave a firm nod before turning around. "Alright, let\'s go guys." He stated and they all followed along without any complaints.

"What did you do?" Yoruichi asked.

"Made a deal with the Old Man."

"Old Man,....? Wait, you mean the Captain Commander?" She blinked.

"Did you not tell her?" I looked at Izzy.

"She was behaving strangely when we spoke. And it slipped my mind afterwards."

"Because you threw Aizen into a pit of shadows!" Yoruichi cried out. "Excuse me if I need a second after seeing that!"

"Is this Aizen person important for some reason?" I asked.

Yoruichi looked at me and let out a huge sigh. "I have so many questions, but I don\'t think I can handle anything right now. What\'s the summary?"

"Orders are for capture only on their end. They\'re attempting a stay of execution, but due to my previous visit, the traditional month of waiting time was nixed. So we have to disrupt the execution enough to delay it for the government here to properly review the reports they\'re going to submit. Sold this whole invasion to the Old Man as a type of military exercise."

She opened her mouth and closed it again. "Right, war time protocols, forgot about those." She winced slightly. "That would have been shitty if things went normally. And I\'ll ignore the ridiculousness of that second part. Alright, I get what you\'re saying. I\'ll help the kids a little on that end, but if I make an appearance in any meaningful way, it\'s going to hurt them." She sighed again, crouching down and turning back into her cat form with a puff of smoke. "But chaos and confusion I can do." She happily chirped. "I\'ll follow them and make sure nothing bad happens in the worst case. What\'re you both gonna do?"

"I\'ll just be doing some things on my end, make it seem more legitimate. I got a fix on them with that Talisman I gave them as well. Go catch up to them, I\'ll be sure to meet back up in a couple days or so."

"Got it, have fun!" She disappeared in a flash and I could see her running across the wall.

"This is turning out to be a fun experience." Izzy commented. "Oh, and I gave them my blessing when they weren\'t looking so I can keep a better eye on them at a distance."

"....are you being facetious?" I eyed her. "And that was very kind of you. They\'re lucky to have such a wonderful Goddess looking after them even if they don\'t know it."

"Oh stop." She playfully swatted my shoulder. "And I am actually enjoying myself quite a bit. I rarely get to go out and do things."

"If nothing else, I\'m glad you\'re having fun." I held my arm out. "Shall we go for a walk?"

She smiled beautifully again. "That would be lovely." She said as she took it.

[***]

"I\'m confused about something." Izzy spoke as we began walking down the...street? Was this a street? I didn\'t actually know.

"What\'s up?"

"What exactly....are we doing? Why not follow the others?"

"Make things appear more natural I suppose. Hit up some spots elsewhere, and also draw some attention away from them. I sold their boss on the whole \'We\'ll act like a fake invasion to give you guys some training\', meaning we should probably do some things in that regard. Figured I\'d go to some other Divisions, sneak in, maybe leave a big ol\' message or something, cause some commotion, that sort of thing."

"Sounds fun."

Maybe I should find another brick?

"How about you? You ran into a Captain, right? How was that?"

"It was interesting. I\'m not used to seeing Spirits with so much power. I could maybe think of the ones we\'ve run into as outliers, but no, the Spirits here simply can build up such strength in a way that\'s somewhat consistent." Izzy responded.

"How strong was he?"

"Fairly strong I suppose. Though he tried to use something to affect my senses, which didn\'t turn out so well for him."

"He\'d be better off just using raw power honestly."

"That\'s exactly what I thought." She let out a small laugh. "It\'s not that he didn\'t have an impressive amount of power available."

"Really? Where would you rank him?"

"What, like on a scale of 1 to 10?"

"Probably be better than just going \'Oh, he\'s Ultimate or high class or whatever stupid bullshit."

She giggled again. "Preaching to the choir here. Do you know how many arguments I have to mediate online because of those stupid rankings? And they\'re nothing compared to arguments about the \'Top 10\'"

"Oh, do tell."

"It started off as a thing that mortals argued about. And of course, it got to the ears of certain Gods and then they used it to stroke their own egos. Obviously no one is going to come out and make a fuss about it, they\'d look like utter children. But you better believe that in the background they gloat and take pride in those ridiculous rankings."

"What exactly is the current ranking going around right now?"

"Which list?" She snorted. "Ask ten people, and they\'ll give you ten different lists. But I saw one recently I didn\'t disagree with too much. I think it was something like; 1. Shiva, 2. Ra, 3. Indra, 4. Hades, 5. Thor, 6. Sirzechs Lucifer, 7. Fenrir, 8. Nuwa, 9. Ajuka Beelzebub, 10. Lugh."

"And Nuwa? That\'s a surprise. I haven\'t heard that Goddess\' name in a very long time." The Chinese Goddess credited with Creating Humanity in some of their creation myths. Actually a sort of Serpent Demon, but also a Goddess.

"There\'s a reason that Indra hasn\'t just usurped the Jade Emperor\'s court and they still persist this long. They have some interesting methods of uplifting mortals, but they lack many on the stronger end. She silently backs them and the higher ups everywhere know it."

And I can sense some Devil Bias in there." It made me roll my eyes.

"Well, when you have Devils owning the ....."

"Fair." I couldn\'t argue with that. "Some obvious names are missing from there off the top of my head."

"As I said, it\'s not exactly accurate if you take into account every being in the world. Even ignoring the likes of Ophis and Great Red. I know that Nyx is somewhat active...relatively. The Triumvirate isn\'t mentioned anywhere beyond Shiva. Sun Wukong could probably be there if he wanted. Typhon is a monster worth noting. And even Odin, as much as I dislike the man, isn\'t someone who would lose out to his own Son enough to not be exceedingly close in ranking. And those are just examples off the top of my head."

"Yeah, Odin mentioned about some of the older lot taking a step back."

"It would look significantly different if we accounted for everyone." She nodded.

"Well, first Shinigami captain besides The Candy Man and Yoruichi you\'ve met. What\'s your ranking there?"

"Honestly, I could probably make a better ranking myself. On a scale of 1 to 10, I\'d give him a 5. No, make that a 5.5, perhaps a tad higher.. He had a lot more power than the cat, even if he tried to hide it, I could tell."

"You sure that isn\'t too low?"

"I think it\'s rather fair."

"Hmm, where is Ophis ranked on that list then?"

"Ophis? She would be a 9."

"Not a 10?"

"Perhaps If I never met you and by extension had no knowledge of that woman you call a lover."

"Ah, right. Meridia is definitely in a league of her own in comparison. So Meridia would be a 10, Ophis would be a 9. Give me the ranking downwards from there."

"Ophis and Great Red as a 9. I would probably give an 8 to the top end of those who would rank in the top 10 or those who could compete for the positions. And a 7 would be for the lower and middle spots."

"That\'s not a bad measurement either." I rubbed my chin. "Where would you put Susanoo?"

"My son? As much as I love him, I would be somewhere above a 6 but belo believe."

" I guess a 5.5 doesn\'t seem that low then. If anything, that seems a little high now."

"He wasn\'t weak by any means. He was strong enough that if a real fight occurred, I would have to treat him with some manner of respect."

"Ah, strong enough to be able to harm you, but not strong enough to defeat you is it?" Kind of how I felt versus that other Shinigami back in Karakura town. Don\'t know what tricks his Bankai would have brought, but I was pretty confident in beating him even if I would have to immediately get serious in a real fight.

"More or less." She shrugged. "He was strong enough that he could throw off my oppression over his Spiritual existence without much effort. But then again, I think anyone on his level would be able to."

"That is impressive though. A little more and he\'s the same tier as genuine Gods. Speaking of, guess where their leader is ranked?"

"A 6?"

"Honestly, I\'d give him a 7, maybe a tad more."

She raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you\'re not over evaluating him?"

"Nope, he\'s genuinely that strong from how I felt. Reminds me of Karna and your daughter honestly. If he got serious, I would have to immediately pull out my trump cards. Oh, and even Ddraig compared him to Odin back when he was still sitting on his throne."

"That\'s impressive. I would like to meet him at some point."

Well, he was a powerful Old Man.

"And we\'re on the topic of powerful Spirits, are we going to wait for that one to approach our direction quickly?" Izzy asked.

"Eh. Do you wanna?"

"Why not." She shrugged again.

It didn\'t take long for whoever it was that was running over to meet us. They were practically broadcasting their presence for the whole world to feel.

And as they got closer, I could faintly hear.....bells?

A rather large man burst through a nearby wall. His hair was spiky, and at the tips of it were little bells swaying in the wind. He wore an eyepatch over his right eye and he held a very weathered Zanpakutō over his shoulder. The thing looked like it\'s been hitting a rock for several years without many chips and rough edges.

And the Captain\'s Haori was very eye-catching.

"Told you I felt them this way." He spoke, and as he did a little head peeked over his shoulder.

"Seen Kenny, I told you they were here!" A little girl, probably seven or eight, with a pink head of hair and a lieutenant badge was smacking his shoulder happily.

"Whatever." He grinned, leveling his blade towards us. "Alright, who wants to fight first? Or do you both wanna come at me at the same time."

"Shouldn\'t you introduce yourself first?" I spoke up.

"Kenpachi Zaraki, Captain of the 11th Division." He said curtly.

"Oh, so you\'re Kenpachi Zaraki, huh?"

"You know me?" His smile widened.

"Of course." Actually, I had no idea who this was.

"Alright, you fighting me? What\'s your name?" He grabbed the little girl off his shoulder and set her on the ground. "Go play at the side, Yachiru."

She ran right up to Izzy and tugged on her pants, even taking Izzy by surprise as she held her arms open.

Izzy looked for a moment before picking up the strange Shinigami child. "Hello Child, what\'s your name?"

"Yachiru Kusajishi." She smiled. "11th Division second seat!"

"Is that so?" She raised an eyebrow. "And does your....Captain know what you actually are?"

"Nope."

"Would you like me to tell him?"

"Nu huh." She shook her head.

"Very well. He treats you well enough? If not, I could have words with him."

"Kenny\'s the best!"

"Very well." Izzy smiled rather motheringly.

"Can I have some candy?" She asked.

"I have no candy. But I have some cookies I baked." She replied, taking them from presumably her storage bracelet.

"Thanks, Mama!"

I think I saw Izzy almost fall over at that. "You\'re very welcome, child."

"Huh..." I turned back towards The Captain. "You have an interesting Lieutenant."

"Whatever, as long as she isn\'t getting into trouble. Had the Old Man on my ass the last time. Not my fault she burned down a few buildings." He grunted. "Is she the brats mom?" He asked me

"Uh....no?\' I blinked.

"Why is she calling her that then?"

"Stupid Kenny, momma is your momma too." The little girl blew a raspberry.

.....did she realize who Izzy was?

"No idea what the hell you\'re talking about. But I don\'t really care. Who am I fighting?" He was starting to get a little impatient.

"Sorry, someone else called dibs."

"What?" He asked in confusion.

"Another person in our party called dibs on fighting you. He said that he wanted to fight the strongest Captain, Kenpachi Zaraki, and he called dibs." I bullshit with a completely straight face.

"Really? Someone wanted to fight me?" His eyes sparkled ever so slightly. "Who, where?\'

"His name is Kurosaki Ichigo, and he went about...." Raised my finger up, pointing in a random direction. "That way."

The Shinigami looked at me for a moment, as if he was actually considering it. "I heard about him. They said he beat Mayuri and invaded the place already. Alright, Yachiru we\'re going. We got a fight waiting for us." He grinned happily.

"Okay Kenny!" She climbed down from Izzy\'s grasp. "Bye Mama."

"Goodbye, Child." Izzy gave another warm smile, and we watched her climb back onto his shoulder.

"I think I can sense them that way, let\'s go, Kenny!" The little girl declared.

"Got it, just tell me when you think you can sense them." He leapt over the wall, and went running.

"Did you really just convince him like that?" Izzy asked.

"Yup, completely bullshitted him there." I was kind of surprised it worked to be honest. "Heard that the members of the Eleventh Division were all battle maniacs.....so, yeah.

"That boy is going to get mad at you again."

"Eh, it\'s good practice. That guy seemed pretty straight forward, so it\'s a good matchup for Ichigo." Besides, Yoruichi was there just in case and I even pointed them in the wrong direction. "What was up with that little girl?"

"She was his....sword spirit."

"What?"

"The Spirit of his Zanpakutō." Izzy clarified. "I don\'t know why she was running around as she was, but she was without a doubt his Zanpakutō spirit."

"That\'s strange."

"I am aware. That.....shouldn\'t be how artifact spirits exist, Wilhelm. Your Jinn is a perfect example of what one should be like. This is strange and I\'m suspecting that something is amiss with these swords. I already felt odd hearing about how they work, but now I\'m not so certain on their existence."

"We can investigate that if you want?"

"It would perhaps set my mind at ease because it gives me a worrisome feeling. As if I will not like what I learn about them." Izzy revealed. "I\'m already disliking this Soul Society with every passing moment, I am very close to doing something about it."

"You have my support with whatever you want to do." I gave her hand a little squeeze in encouragement. "Why don\'t we –"

Izzy jerked her head to the side enough that it made the words die in my mouth. "What\'s wrong?"

"The shadows are acting weird. Something is coming over from the other side." She spoke and suddenly there was a strange phantom image of some buildings of a different architectural style that appeared in various places.

But the most eye catching thing was a massive pillar of light that shot upwards to the sky.

It took the form of a large cross with a ring around it.

"That doesn\'t look good."

[***]

People have been talking about power rankings, so I wanted to clarify things and show where I\'m at in my own thoughts.

Feel free to comment if you think I didn\'t get something right or you disagree, but this is where I\'m at for the moment and I think i\'m be fair here.

On a scale of 1-10 (you can divide these into smaller decimals to show the further divide)

10 - Meridia (Basically the EX ranking, where the normal ranking doesn\'t even matter anymore)

9 - Ophis/Great Red/Goetia (The sort of \'transcendent ranking\' where the \'unfathomably powerful\' enemies are all grouped. Not saying they\'re all equal in strength, but they sort of exist in the same level in a broad scope.)

8 - Top half of the top 10 or those who could rank there (Shiva in DxD is right near the top, like an 8.9 or something)

7 - middle to lower end of the top 10 (I would put Yamamoto in this bracket somewhere)

6 - This is where the \'normal\' Gods would be, think Susanoo in DxD who\'s in the middle of the pack strength-wise. The higher ranked deities are obviously pushing the limit of this bracket.

5 - This is where most Shinigami captains are. (Izzy rates pre-hogyoku Aizen as a 5.5, only a little ways away from what could be considered a \'God\' by the standards of DxD. Post Hogyoku Aizen, well, that\'s a whole different story.)

4- This is specifically where Mayuri is, if on the higher end. He\'s not particularly strong amongst the Captain level Shinigami, but he has his own tricks. I\'d also put a good chunk of Ultimate Class people here, but the DxD \'strength rankings\' are really obscure so it\'s often hard to say.

3- This is where a lot of the lower end \'Ultimate Class\' and \'High Class\' people are. Think Soma, Yasaka\'s body guard with the Dimension Lost.

2- This is probably where the above average \'superhumans\' are listed. Probably Rias\'s peerage, and people like Riser and basically any standard Magician(DxD) you could find that\'s had some years under their belt.

1- Freshly Reincarnated Devils, generally superhumans that can shrug off bullets but don\'t necessarily rise above common fodder.

Anyways, this is my thoughts on power levels so far. But don\'t take this as gospel. It\'s not like in a Xianxia where if someone\'s 1/10th of a realm higher, they automatically win. It\'s just sort of a way to eyeball where people are power-wise between various settings . Yes, people in Bleach have some impressive abilities and hax that let them punch above their weight class, and that\'s a perfect example. Shunsui isn\'t cleaving mountains in half with every wave of his sword, but he can pull some bullshit with his Zanpakuto that lets him minorly alter reality and possibly causality.

[***]

If you want to read 7 chapters ahead or support me, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / astoryforone