A Wandering Soul

The sound of alarms going off all around jolted me awake, and caused me to fall off the box I was using as a makeshift bed.

"Well, that was graceful" I muttered as I picked myself off the floor.

Stretching to get the kinks out from laying on a wooden box for several hours, I noticed that everything seemed blurry and it was hard to move.

Oh right, I had pushed Astralization as far as it would go and spent the night in Spectre Mode to avoid detection. Pretty much the only use I had for that skill in this universe was for hiding in one spot invisible to everyone else. Though there was the significant downside of not being able to move quickly at all.

Seriously, it felt like I was trying to walk through wet concrete.

I did figure out that tethering myself to an outside source would allow me to move more freely in Spectre Mode, but that would mean tying myself to someone through a Servant Bond, and I wasn't about to hand that kind of control over me to anyone here.

I glanced around the warehouse I was hiding out in just to make sure no one was in the area. While I couldn't make out more than a bunch of colored blobs at the moment, none of them were black or moving around, so I figured I was still alone for the moment.

Shifting back to my more comfortable Spirit Mode I glanced around again, confirming that I was alone before heading outside to try and spot the others.

I doubted that this many alarms would be going off for another reason.

Scanning the sky for the rest of the group, I eventually spotted the others when they crashed into the membrane surrounding the Seireitei. The small sphere of reishi caused the barrier and the shockwaves of the impact to become visible. It was an incredibly impressive sight made even more so by the vortex of reiryoku that appeared when the barrier was breached. Then, in a seemingly coordinated move the vortex exploded into four beams of light that spread out over the Seireitei.

If I didn't know that the entire spectacle was the result of Ichigo being horrible at controlling his energy I would have thought the whole thing was a coordinated breaching action by a highly trained invasion force.

Shaking my head I started running, not really concealing myself any longer, it didn't seem important considering the massive lightshow we just put on.

-o-​

If yesterday was rough, then today was shaping up to be a nightmare in Nasumi's opinion.

The trail of the intruder gone cold late in the afternoon. It was obvious that she had bunkered down somewhere to rest over the night rather than continue on to whatever goal she might have, but even after they had pieced together a rough path by mapping out where they found unconscious squad members they had been utterly unable to find their target in the surrounding area.

Either the intruder had suddenly veered off her projected path, entirely possible due to the lack of knowledge about her goal, or she had managed to hide from an entire squad for a night. One trained in reconnaissance and tracking even!

If that wasn't embarrassing enough, a few mere hours after Natsumi called it a night and allowed other teams to take over the search she was jarred awake as alarms broke out all over the place. Apparently, another group had decided to use a normally suicidal approach of an aerial insertion into the Seireitei, and succeeded in not only making it past the barrier created by the Sekkiseki stone walls that had never been breached in such a manner in the entire history of the Court Guard Squads, but also managing to vanish into the surroundings just like the other intruder.

Well...all except the group that landed in the middle of squad 11. They were methodically tearing that squad to pieces. From the rank and file, all the way up to the 5th and 3rd Seat Officers. And of course they rejected any offers of support from other squads. The overconfident meatheads.

Luckily she had actually received word back from the captain on how to proceed, because Natsumi was very out of her depth. She was simply to continue tracking the first intruder. All other squad two members would be directed by direct order from the Captain.

The intruders themselves had all been labeled Ryoka, and thus priority was now either kill or capture on sight. Things like determining their goal was now a secondary concern. Which meant that the majority of squad members would simply kill the Ryoka if they had the option.

Natsumi had mixed feelings about labeling the invading group as Ryoka. It was nice to have clear rules of engagement and such, but she felt that it was a waste to not prioritize capture since there were so many unknowns.

Where had this group come from, how did they manage to get a member inside with no alarms going off, what was their goal?

Hopefully she would get at least a few answers before the incursion was dealt with. Otherwise the mystery would bother her for quite some time.

Natsumi signaled the two others in her hastily made team to stop as she noticed a Hell Butterfly heading towards them.

"Someone actually find this chick?" wondered Yuusuke while Natsumi checked the message.

Decent guy Natsumi supposed, if a bit too eager to run off on his own and get in over his head. Good close combat fighter, but more of a danger to himself with either long range weapons or Kido.

"More likely they found another batch of idiots she jumped." snarked Hiei.

Him, Natsumi liked considerably less. Quick to point out flaws in others yet not very receptive of criticism himself, Hiei had always grated on her nerves. Unfortunately she was forced to bring him along as her normal team was split up to act as team leaders themselves. Still he was fast and skilled, just barely missing the level a member of the Captain's Executive Militia forces would possess. Not that he would be assigned there even if he had the skills due to his personality. Far too arrogant, the Captain would kill him within a week.

"Quiet you two, we actually have reports of both." Natsumi said, releasing the Hell Butterfly. "The Ryoka has apparently abandoned stealth and is now disabling any squad members she encounters similarly to the situation in Squad 11.

"Good news for us is that we can finally predict she will be passing outpost 9-7 in twenty minutes, bad news is squad 7 is racking up casualties at the same time."

"Our mystery lady start killing any of them?" asked Yuusuke.

"Luckily for us, no. She still seems content to disable anyone she faces. Though it seems she is dealing severe enough injuries that anyone she comes across isn't getting back into action for a few days at least. Maybe longer considering Squad 11 is also taking casualties as well."

"Weaklings probably didn't even notice she was close by until she fed them their teeth." Hiei snarked, "So naturally our squad needs to clean up after them. I could deal with the Ryoka by myself if you two want to go babysit the idiots in squad 11."

"Oh please, you could barely deal with a drunk monkey. If we left you alone with the Ryoka, we would need to track her down again after she kicked your ass."

"Fuck you, Yuusuke. I'll kick your ass first if you want."

Both idiots had stopped and were getting ready to draw their Zanpakuto. Natsumi was tempted to let them go at it and handle the Ryoka alone, but they had already proven they had the ability to defeat a 3rd seat already and Natsumi was not going to risk being unable to capture this Ryoka because they were too closely matched.

"Cut it out you morons" she snapped, "you can finish your argument after we deal with the Ryoka. Now get moving, I want to be in a position to capture this one before we lose her again."

-o-​

The unconscious body of the last guard crashed into the ground, smoking and sparking slightly from being hit by the electrified blade. The bodies of three others littered the area, all of them close together signifying they did barely had any time to react to the first attack before they were struck down.

A sigh escaped me as the sword dispersed into light particles.

I don't know exactly how many guards I ran into, but you would think they would learn after the first dozen or so to pay more attention. Most of the 'fights' if you could even call them that consisted of Haste in front of them, slash with an electricity enchanted sword, rinse and repeat until everyone fell over.

I was actually getting to the point where I was hoping to run into an officer, if only to make it feel like I wasn't just beating up random people instead of the supernatural military force I was supposed to be up against.

Turning away from my latest victims, I continued towards the building in front of me. Another one of those guardpost types from the look of it. I had gone through a few of them looking for a map of the area, and while I found several of nearby sections I hadn't found a detailed one of the entire Seireitei yet.

I picked through a few of the offices where I had found useful documents in other buildings and was rewarded with another map of the local area, but still not a complete one.

Right, just keep heading for the center then.

As I ran I started leafing through some of the reports that had been filtered out about our little invasion. Apparently they had no solid info on the number of intruders, but guessed at least ten or so based on the amount of Squad 11 members being taken out. I realised that as a group we were all abnormally strong compared to the foot soldiers of the Seireitei, but I didn't think they would be so wrong in their assessment.

Only Ichigo, Ganju, and Chad actually faced foot soldiers from what I remembered. Though if Yoruichi was secretly taking out groups, it wouldn't surprise me much.

Squad 11 seats 3 and 5 had been defeated earlier today along with Squad 7's 4th seat who received crippling injuries. Over fifty members of Squad 11 were forced into a Squad 4 recovery barracks with major injuries, but the report was from earlier today so the number has only gone up.

I was forced to look away from the documents when I turned a corner and found myself in a wide open area.

It looked like it might be a staging point or gathering area considering how close it was to the guard post, but for all I knew it was a picnic area for someone. The Seireitei was weird, white walls and warehouses everywhere and oddly empty in places.

All thoughts on the architectural design of the ghost samurai's super fortress were ejected when a Soul Reaper stepped into view, blade drawn.

"Hello Ryoka, this is as far as you go."

He was a few inches shorter than me. With slicked-back black hair and the normal Soul Reaper uniform. I didn't recognize him at all so if he was in the show he failed to make an impression. But he definitely had the casual arrogance most Soul Reapers seemed to have by default.

That he was also the first Soul Reaper to confront me, rather than get ambushed, made me a little more wary of him anyway.

"Yuusuke, you idiot. Just take her out already. We have the rest to deal remember?"

Looking over my shoulder I found another Soul Reaper had stepped out to block the path I had come from. He was much shorter than me, maybe only coming up to mid-chest on me, with spiky black hair held up in a cloth headband. He also had his sword out, but despite his words he seemed in no more of a rush to fight me than his friend.

"Don't be like that, Hiei. We spent more than a day tracking this one down. I want to at least make it worth all that time."

"If you want her to beat you up I can let you fight her first."

"Beat me up!? Like hell! I need to make sure you don't let her get away cause you got a scratch, shorty."

Both of them bickered between themselves for a bit while I was searching the surroundings. No reason to be careless.

"So question for you two." I said, interrupting their insult trading. "Any chance we can hurry this up? I have places to be."

The taller of the two smirked, "Well sorry to say, you aren't getting by us so you don't need to rush."

"Fine, in that case the two of you can come at me. It will be faster that way."

The smirk didn't diminish at all. "Nah, like I said it took a long time to find you. We can take it a bit slower. In fact if you want to go one on one, I'm game."

I risked another glance back at the short one, Hiei I suppose, and found he hadn't moved a bit. Seems like despite his earlier impatience, he was fine with just standing around for a bit. That either meant they were arrogant idiots… or they were delaying me for some reason.

With that in mind, I formed Kanshou and Bakuya and rushed the one in front of me. His eyes widened as he was forced to block a double strike aimed at his shoulder. The three blades sparked under the pressure, but he held of the strike well enough.

I disengaged slightly before pressing him with some probing attacks, going after his arms or legs to slow him down before his buddy decided to jump in. Small scratches appearing on his arms from where he failed to block completely in time. He was good. I had him off guard with my first attack and even while off-balance he was able to fend me off.

I feigned to one side, managing to get him to overcommit to a block and nailed him with a kick to his side, sending him flying a few feet. I quickly turned to face Hiei, bringing my swords up in a defensive position just tin time to catch…

Nothing.

Hiei was still standing where he started. He was visibly more on guard, but made no attempt to approach.

"Not going to help your friend? He's not bad, but he's going to lose."

Short-stuff just smirked. "If he's going to lose to someone as weak as you then I don't see a reason to step in. Better for all of us if he bites it."

I didn't like this. Yeah Soul Reapers were more likely to go for duels over ganging up on an opponent, but these two made a point to ambush me. To go through that effort and then stand around? I started to think they were waiting for something, and I didn't want to hang around to find out what.

"Fuck you Hiei, I'm just getting warmed up." Yuusuke was back on his feet and slowly circling to my right. "Lady here just caught me a bit off guard."

"You can call me Alexandria. That way you know who beat you up."

Yuusuke smiled, "Right guess we forgot to introduce ourselves. I'm Squad 2 special reconnaissance member Kazuhiro Yuusuke, guy behind you isn't important so ignore him. Now then, how about we start round two?"

This time he was the one to charge forward.

I fell back keeping an eye on Hiei, but true to his word he made no move to help Yuusuke. More proof they weren't trying to end this as fast as Hiei made it seem. I eyed the surroundings again but nothing was sticking out.

Dodging under a swing, I dropped to the ground and kicked at Yuusuke's knee. Seeing him off-balance once more I quickly threw both swords at Hiei, startling him out of his somewhat relaxed posture. In the same move I grabbed Yuusuke by the front of his uniform before flipping him over and slamming him on the ground.

Then I took off running at the exit Yuusuke had come from. "Sorry guys I'm not in the mood to play with you right now, maybe later!"

I was almost to the gate when my instincts screamed at me to move. Jumping off to the side I barely dodged getting hit by Hiei's sword before he stood in front of the gate. From the look of it me making a break for the exit pissed him off.

"Figured it out then?" He asked, well snarled more like. I have a feeling he didn't like me.

I smirked at him and settled into a defensive stance, another pair of swords appearing in my hands.

"Tch" Hiei rushed me, staying low to the ground, before attacking in a flurry of swings.

He was less controlled attacks and more 'swing as fast as possible and try and get a hit in' but he was pushing me a little. He managed to scratch the edge of my red outer coat right at my collarbone before he over extended and I managed a counterattack. Our blades met in a flash of sparks, and I quickly overpowered him forcing him to jump back a few feet.

I glanced down at the small cut on my clothing.

"All that effort, and that was the best you could do? That's just embarrassing."

Hiei drew himself up before pointing his sword at me. "You want my best, then here. Burn and rage, Jaō Ensatsu.

The blade shimmered like a mirage before bursting into purple black flames.

"Now prepare to die!"

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