Bleach: Ketsurui: The Shadow of a Memory

Battle Plan
Ahatake was sitting on the roof of the Kurosaki house, thinking hard about the events of last week. They had failed to capture they're target, and what was worse, they had reason to know that those two weren't working alone. It was not a joyous time for the Yūrei Ōkoku.

On the ground below, there was quite a rare event going on.

Reflecting off of old times, Taiki was in a sparring match with his two daughters, Kyuui and Aoi. Normally, he would've chosen the one that was less busy to teach. However, in this case, both wanted to. After he readily had ablidged, he had taken them outside in order to commence the training. After all, he wasn't one to allow their fighting skills to get rusty. Megami was courteous enough to stand by and watch the two girls improve.

Aoi's fingertips were glowing. "Bakudō #4, Hainawa!" She cried, the glowing tendril flying at her father.

Immediately, Taiki executed a backflip to hoist himself into the air. Not only did he avoid the tendril from grabbing him, he also stabbed his own blade into it, its reiatsu disrupting the flow of the attack and dispelling it. However, no sooner that he did, Kyuui came from above him, swinging her blade down on his up-side down form. Promptly, he allowed one foot to kick her away as he finished with the backflip, landing on his own two feet. Kyuui recovered quickly, charging at him again, but only to recieve a vertical sword attack for her trouble. She was forced to block with one hand on the blade, Taiki's strength proving to be a burden to her as she fell on one knee.

Taiki smiled.

Aoi used her sister's attack on her father to get behind him, and she extended a hand close to his back. "Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini!! Look upon yourself with horror and then claw out your own throat! Bakudō #9, Geki!"

However, in reality, she had never gotten to half of that sentence. With an upward swing of his leg, he struck Aoi in the chin to send her away from him forcefully while keeping Kyuui in her sword lock. "Talkin' that long's gonna get you killed..." He chided, pressing his sword down even further until Kyuui was forced to jump away, her left palm bleeding. "Even if it is a Kidō spell..."

Aoi groaned. "I'll get you for that Tou-san!" She said, firing a quickly charged Cero.

Immediately, as Taiki turned around to face her, hand outstretched to block and dispell it, Kyuui saw it immediately as a good opportunity to attack. When the Cero blast connected, Kyuui got to her feet and raced towards his back, sword clutched tightly in both hands. Then, she allowed herself to swing at him, despite her blade being on the wrong side. Accordingly, Taiki raised his sword hand to block the oncoming attack... but when the blades collided, his own sword began to vibrate violently, the heat of the rubbing against his skin causing the hilt to almost cut into his palms. He staggered back, certainly surprised.

Aoi gripped her own blade firmly in her hand, and moved in for the kill with Shunpo, raising her blade and slamming it down at her father's exposed back.

He could've dodged easily.

However, he allowed the blade to cut his back, wincing as he felt steel slice into his flesh. However, it only managed to make a wound just barely considered not to be lethal. He chuckled a little. "Congratulations. You managed to coordinate with each other in order to land a good blow on me." He said, allowing himself to sheathe his sword. "This session is over!"

Aoi licked the blood off her blade before sheathing it, an act that would normally disgust others if her family was not already used to it. "I kinda think that was pure luck Tou-san."

"Nonsense...." Taiki turned his head towards her just as he was finished. "Would you really doubt your own father?"

"Yes." Aoi said simply.

"Good!" Taiki squinted his eyes and smiled. "It helps to keep you on your guard." Turning slightly, he allowed himself to walk off, giving a farewell wave behind him as he stepped inside of the house. "You're dismissed, do whatever you wanna do!"

"I never did understand Tou-san at all." Aoi murmured.

"Well...." Kyuui commented hesitatingly, sheathing her own blade and looking towards the spot where Taiki had left. "He ''did' say we did good..." The truth was, she never could understand her father's mind, either. Despite his cheerful mood, he had always seemed to hide behind something.... but rarely anyone knew what.

"No use trying to figure him out." Ahatake said, jumping down from the roof. He had watched the sparring match and heard the girls talking. "Only his mother understands him, and sometimes, I doubt even she fully knows what he's about."

It wasn't a surprise that Kyuui jumped at the sudden sound of her grandfather's voice. "Ojii-san...!" She managed to say, immediately taking a step back from him. "H...how come?" She felt, however, it was a rather stupid question to ask: if Taiki's own father didn't know how his own son thought, how would he ever answer that?

"I don't know." Ahatake sighed. "He's just...different."

Of course.

Taiki had always been different... Kyuui had remembered saying how he hated to be different... how everyone continued to comment on him being the "black sheep". Why was that? She had never saw the difference between Taiki and the rest of the family... he had a wife, and two children who loved him very much... why was this rift between them still here?

Ahatake placed a hand to his head. "Yareyare... Anyway, I'm going to have to talk to Shunsui-san and Ukitake-san. See what the current plans are." He turned on the spot, vanishing with a burst of flames.

Aoi frowned. "Maybe we should get Tou-san a therapist."

"....like who?" To be honest, Kyuui was ready to argue that Taiki didn't need such a thing. After all, he wasn't insane, depressed, or whatever. He kept up a rather teasing and optimistic personality, maybe just to keep the rest of the family moralized.

"Hey, I came up with the therapist idea, you come up with what therapist we send him to."

"....that's enough. Tou-san doesn't need a therapist." Kyuui felt a bit snappish at her attitude, folding her arms across her chest. "Even if, for whatever reason, we get him one, what do you think he's going to talk about? Ojii-san. Then he'll be brought in, and considering the way they've been acting.... it's not going to be nice."

"Ok ok ok!" Aoi said, eager to distract Kyuui from this conversation, tackling her to the ground and placing her lips to Kyuui's.

"...!!!!"

On the inside of the house, Ahatake, Shunsui, Taiki, Ukitake, and Rukia were sitting in the family room, discussing what to do about the Hiraishin problem. Ukitake currently had the floor.

"Here's the situation...." Ukitake was explaining in a clear voice, so that everyone would understand. "Yuurei forces have both Senko and Yokoshima penned in the city. But that won't last forever... sooner or later, they're going to break the lines and escape from the city. In the primary case, we have to rely on both their reports and our clues in order to find them again."

"As long as we have the crystallized spiritual energy, finding them should be rather simple." Ahatake said, holding up the crystal in question.

"But the question is, when we find them, how are we going to stop them?" Ukitake folded his arms within his sleeves. "From what we now know, Yokoshima, as powerful as she is, doesn't seem to possess any special abilities other than her Shikai and Bankai. Senko, on the other hand, seems to have a bit more than that, considering the mind-reading ability that she possesses. Then.... there's this "Gomei" person. Her Kido barrier was enough to stop Ahatake's energy attack without a scatch on it. They're going to prove to be more difficult in order to figure out."

Ahatake frowned deeply. He did not need reminding that his attack has failed to hit it's mark. "Beating them will definitely be a problem..." He muttered. "She mentioned other "lives". I am sure that the closer we get to beating them, the more of these "lives" she will bring out."

That's when Shunsui spoke up. "We can only assume that Gomei's one of those lives, but that's only on presumption. We need to pull more out of hiding, at least one more, if we want to prove that there are more out there. Even then, there's the problem of figuring out how many will we have to face down...."

"I'm inclined to believe that Gomei is one of the "lives"." Rukia said, speaking for the first time. "Senko only mentioned the "lives" after bringing out Gomei."

"Belief alone isn't going to make it true..." Shunsui reminded her, looking towards her with half-lidded eyes. "I'm inclined to think the same thing, but I don't like walking right into a trap that's going to be a pain in the ass to get out of."

"True." Rukia placed a finger to her chin in thought.

"There was also that last thing they said. 'Don't look for us, we'll find you next time'." Ahatake recited. "It's as if they want to fight us."

"Why not?" Taiki had chosen this time to speak up, shrugging his shoulders. "Besides the King, we're probably the greatest threat to 'em. Of course they'd be focused on taking us out first, then concentrate on the weaker defenses second."

"True, but I find it unusual, since the only villain I've ever met who's gone looking for a fight is well...you." Ahatake replied.

"Gee, thanks, Tou-san." Taiki rolled his eyes, folding his arms across his chest as he sat. "Thanks for telling Kuchiki-chibi of my rap sheet. Too bad it's cleared..."

Rukia ignored Taiki's comment as Ahatake spoke. "Moving on, assuming she DOES bring in more fighter's, that isn't going to make this a walk in the park. Are we even going to be able to take them on without additional help?"

Ukitake raised both eyebrows. "What do you mean by additional help?" He asked calmly, referring to the identity of such.

"Additional fighters." Ahatake replied. "Shunsui and Taiki would have killed Aku if she hadn't retreated. but then the girl mentioned the "other lives". We don't know what powers they've got, and I'm actually thinking we may need help."

"Oh, c'mon, are you serious, Tou-san?" That made Taiki stood up, motioning towards the group entirely. "I mean, most of us here probably haven't even fought them on a full level. There's Shunsui....Ukitake.... me.... and maybe even you! I donno about Chibi-san, but I don't think she's went all this way without attempting to learn Bankai.... right?"

"I do know Bankai." Rukia said, confirming what Taiki said. "But I am still in the 10 year training period. My Bankai is not ready for battle just yet."

"Well, still! Aside from Rukia, I'm pretty sure that it's time to start showing them what we can really do and stop holding back." Taiki insisted.

"Have you learned Bankai Taiki?" Ahatake inquired.

That made Taiki pause a minute. He turned his head and half-lidded his eyes to stare at his father. Ukitake and Shunsui, slightly curious, focused their own eyes on him. However, the white-haired man treated the question as an unnecessary one, countering back: "....what a stupid question. Do I really need to answer that?" Normally, it would've been obvious what his answer would be, but his unknown nature kept it in solitude. He waited for his answer.

"Considering none of us know, yes you need to answer that."

"Real bullshit, Tou-san. If you didn't figure it out during the fight we had back there, then you never will." Taiki stated, squinting his eyes and smiling. "Or maybe you'll find out later on..."

"How would I notice it?" Ahatake asked. "I never pay attention to you if I can help it."

"And that's why you don't figure the things out about me that you need to..." Taiki stated casually, shrugging. "But, back to the point. We don't need additional help in defeating these guys. We've got enough as it is."

Ahatake sighed. "The thought of using Bankai isn't too pleasant for me. My sword doesn't exactly have the best personality, and if I'm forced to use Bankai, I'm gonna be in for a hell of a rant from her when it's over."

"Just deal with it. We have bigger problems."

"You wouldn't be saying that if you used this Zanpakutō." Ahatake replied, his hand on it's hilt. "But, if I was able to drown out your mother for over 100 years, drowning out Ryuūseiga for a few hours shouldn't be a problem."

"Tch... fine by us..." Taiki muttered, stepping back.

Ahatake slammed his fist down onto his son's head, frowning. "Wish your mother had taken you when she left."

This caused Ukitake and Shunsui to laugh a little at the boy as he held his head. "GAH.... I'M CALLING CHILD ABUSE!!!" He shouted, though it was clear that he was an adult.

"Moving on. Are we actually going to take Senmei up on the "don't come looking for me, I'll find you" crap she said before her departure?"

This caused Shunsui to sigh, raising a hand to place on his forehead. He was starting to lament the loss of his hat... the gesture was similar to that of his friend/opponent's when Shunsui assumed him to be the Segunda Etapa. "We have no choice. We're going to have to wait for them to come to us, if we want a chance to draw them out..."

"True. Makes things simple." Ahatake nodded. "Just wish they'd get here."

"Well, that's easy to do..." Taiki muttered, folding his arms across his chest and tilting his head to the side.

Aoi ran into the room, looking worried. "I don't mean to interrupt, but we've got visitors from hell."

"What?!?" Ahatake asked, jumping up.

"It's not what you're thinking." Aoi replied. "Come outside and see."

Both Shunsui and Ukitake now held slightly surprised looks on their faces. "Uh..." Ukitake started, slightly hesitant. "Should we come, too?" This might've been something that only one, or at least the family would need to attend to.

"It's probably something you guys should see too." Aoi said, running back out.

"Well, I guess we should go see what's out there. Can't be any worse than Jurassic Park." Ahatake said, pretty Rukia, Ukitake and Shunsui would not get what he said anyway.