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The Royal Palace Brides	By : c0p13r Category: Bleach > Het - Male/Female Views: 9515 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I don't own 'Bleach' and make no money from this story.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
- 8
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            The hallway turned, and the line of the calvary was silhouette against the morning sun, casting their long shadows dramatically against the inner wall of the palace. Ichigo growled. “Dammit, how long is this corridor?!”
            “You mean you didn’t take the time to map out your own home?” Rukia chastised him from the side.
            “It’s not like I can memorize the whole layout of this place in a week!” he defended himself, but then retracted when he saw Halibel’s gaze on him. Was it judgment or just observation in her green eyes? She was taking note of who he was. He turned back forward, tight-lipped and hoping he didn’t make an impression of being a loudmouthed insolent. “Let’s just hurry.”
            “You’re the one struggling to keep up,” Mera pointed out, lagging only to criticize her husband before speeding ahead.
            “Hehe, she has a point, Ichigo,” Rukia teased.
            But Ichigo couldn’t fight back. Dammit, shut up. He put more speed to his pace as his mind wandered to his wives. If they all got along… they could gang up on him in any dispute. A heavy sweat drop pulled down at the side of his head. That could be bad…
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            “Damn you, Gigi!”
            “Hey, don’t go throwin’ bombs…!”
            Tenjiro’s words fell on deaf ears. Orbs of blue Quincy reishi fired off in rapid succession, destroying where they touched, no matter what it was, all in a vain effort to catch the wiry Giselle ducking and dodging behind anything she could. Walls were demolished, pillars turned to rubble, and banisters becoming open pathways to a death dive.
            And though Tenjiro would have liked to stop the destruction, his hands were tied with the two other accomplices: Candice Catnipp and Meninas McAllon. They’d no vendetta to exact except on the Shinigami complicit in their Reich’s demise. They had been conditioned to hate the brood of the Soul King, natural enemies even if there was the truce during the Tsunayashiro incident, and having been brought here against there will did not sit well with them.
            “Die, you shithead!” Candice’s lightning was fast; Lightning-Fast Tenjiro was faster, slipping by her attacks with such ease that it bored him. And he would go after her, taking her out of commission if it weren’t for the buxom pink-headed Meninas keeping on the attack with her dumbbell batons. He countered her thrusts with the paddle of his Kinpika, but whenever he made an opening to land a decisive blow, Candice intercepted, roaring with rage and electricity that might have been scary.
            “Jeez, what a pain you Quincy are.” He finally flattened one of Meninas’ batons to the ground, bringing her weight with it and putting her off balance. “Is this the thanks I get for letting you use my hot springs?”
            “You’re quite annoying,” Meninas stated bluntly before muscle stacked upon muscle in her right arm.
            Tenjiro gave a start in shock, not expecting this airy and seemingly fragile woman to possess such a monstrous ability. His reflexes perhaps would have saved him from harm, but no use for it when a Soul King could block the blow with his dual Zanpakuto. The massive punch reverberated off the blades, shaking the room and causing a disturbance in the atmosphere.
            Meninas showed a mild look of surprise. “It’s Kurosaki Ichigo.”
            “Kurosaki?!” The name filled Candice with more rage! She spun away from the unguarded Squad Zero Captain; a perfect chance to defeat him spoiled by her own hubris. She leered with hate. “If it’s him, then we haven’t come here for nothing!”
            Ichigo looked over his shoulder at her, recognizing this group as the Quincy battalion that had swamped him on reentrance to the Soul Society. “So it’s you again.”
            “Don’t give me that shit!” Candice exploded with energy, huffing and heaving with killing desire. “I’ve been waiting for this, Kurosaki Ichigo! Don’t think”—She held a lightning bolt in her hand like a javelin—“that I’ve forgiven you!!”
            She hurled the electric attack with all intent and fury, never minding that she’d turn her own ally to a crisp in the process. But Ichigo knew that, leaping up and grabbing the back of Meninas’ collar to carry her with him. “Oomp!” she went, tucking up into a ball as her feet left the ground. Where she had stood not a second before was viciously scorched. “Huh. Candi is always so reckless.” She turned to the one who carried her out of harm’s way. “But this guy… is kind of annoying me.” Her arm swelled to full effect and made a swing to knock his head from his shoulders. Ichigo looked over his shoulder, acknowledging the surprise attack with little regard.
            She had some odd powers, he’d give her that. But brute force – he tightened his hand on his smaller sword for a quick counter – was never a match for him.
            Yet it wasn’t by his hand that Meninas was kept at bay, but by the intervention of Halibel’s broader sword; more effective on absorbing a blunt blow. Ichigo was disengaged from the pink-haired Quincy now, and was making room for the Espada to rebound from Meninas’ giant fist. Soul King and Arrancar gathered back on the ground, skidding their sandals on the floor, but otherwise well poised.
            “Uh, thanks,” Ichigo said warily, glancing to Tier Halibel. “But I can handle this on my…”
            “A duty of a King is to protect, Kurosaki Ichigo.” Halibel’s green eyes peered back at him from over her face-covering collar. “The same could be said of an Empress. You needn’t do everything alone.”
            Ichigo stared at her. He remembered how he was told that before, right before invading Hueco Mundo with Urahara-san’s help. Straightening his features, he decided not to toil over the issue. There were still explosions happening at the other side of the room – a dark-haired Quincy who he did not recognize (though he was always bad with facial memory) still screaming hatred at one of her own – and there was no time to dally and showboat. The green-haired and pink-haired Quincy had already lined up, ready to renew a vicious assault.
            “Alright,” he said to Halibel, grinning. “Then we’ll do this together.”
            “Yes,” she answered huskily.
            But Candice was hardly intimidated by this team up. Never minding the fact that the Squad Zero man was now sidelined, allowing the King to show his mettle to his rowdy brides. “Ha! You think a lowly Arrancar is going to better your chances?!”
            Ichigo tsked flatly, but didn’t want to remind her that he ran circles around her before his upgrade to Soul King.
            “The queen of Hueco Mundo was the first casualty of Yhwach’s war!” Lightning exploded from Candice’s lip-licking excitement. “I’ll deal with her first, then!”
            Despite the provocations and obvious detriment to her strength, Halibel did not contend with her. Actions spoke louder… and this vest was confining. She grabbed the zipper hanging between her bust and rolled it up slowly, dramatically. Up and up until it flared open.
            Ichigo faltered a bit, the interest in his gaze obvious, though the mask did daunt him a little.
            But Halibel proudly brandished the 3 tattooed on her chest. She was Number One in all of the world of Hollows, but she would remind all that she had climbed there by sacrifice. These underlings would do well to remember that it was by The Almighty’s own hand that she fell in the first place; by surprise and ambush.
            “You’ve interrupted a significant ceremony,” Halibel told the Quincy, and held out her Zanpakuto. “There’s no time to dawdle. Hunt, Tiburón.”
            “Whoa!” Ichigo barely had time to leap out of the way as water erupted from the air, forming a case around Halibel before rushing out to flood the place with water.
            “Jeez, acting like this is your personal playground!” Tenjiro swung his paddle to intercept the current with his own water manipulation. He couldn’t have the Royal Palace flooding, after all. Tons of water ran in a jetting stream, twisting and writhing overhead. He could drown the Quincy by dropping all of it… but his instructions were that they were not meant to be harmed. One of them was to be Ichigo’s Quincy bride, after all.
            “Stinkin’ Monk makes everything”—Tenjiro grunted and heaved the water load over the banister—“complicated!” The tide exploded in the open sky, flashing with a magnificent rainbow before it all plummeted harmlessly. Well, semi-harmlessly, Tenjiro considered as he peeked over the edge. “Soul Society will have to expect some rain…”
            If Halibel’s dressing had flustered Ichigo before, this skimpier outfit was downright distracting! He tripped over himself in midair when he was caught gawking too long, falling flat on his face. “What’s wrong?” Halibel asked.
            “N-nothing!” Ichigo answered, his bleeding nose not having occurred from the fall. Dammit! Stuff like this shouldn’t affect me in battle! But then, it wasn’t really a battle. This was an exercise in futility for the Quincy, perhaps the death throes of the Wandenreich’s hostilities towards the Shinigami.
            “Who cares about some slutty outfit change?” scoffed Candice, hating women who could draw more attention than herself. After all, she didn’t modify her Quincy outfit to high hip-hugging shorts and a flashy shirt that only seem to function as support for her heavy breasts!
            Again, Halibel didn’t give in to provocation. She was an Empress and needn’t entertain the yapping of a cornered brat.
            That silence incurred Candice’s rage. “See if you can keep looking like that… when I char you to embers!!” Lightning raced across the room, and Halibel zipped by; not as swiftly as Tenjiro, but she had her means. She came down at Candice with her heavy blade; Candice didn’t need to move, not when Meninas and her monstrous strength could catch the sword and stop it with ease.
            “You Arrancar are so arrogant,” Meninas observed, and cocked back her other fist. “You should just die.”
            Ice flashed. Her prepped fist was caught or at least slowed down. “Huh?” She took her eyes off Halibel to see the mini-glacier that had grown from the ground in a solid stock, catching her hand in the ice.
            “Some no Mai: Tsukishiro.(First Dance: White Moon.)” Rukia had already finished with her blade, easing it back into its scabbard. No use for her to swing her sword; the room was already full of them.
            “Oh, this won’t stop me~♪” said Meninas informatively, and easily snapped her encased arm from the vise of the ice. But the pause was all that was needed for Nel to intercept her. Back-of-the-blade swipes knocked Meninas off balance; nothing brutal, but Tenjiro did show some annoyance that he was prohibited from such aggressions.
            For all her powerhouse strength, Meninas was brought down, her neck caught under Nel’s scabbard. The hold would be doubled up when Isane arrive – Kiyone cheering her on – and Rangiku, who moped about having to do any sort of work on this visit.
            “Good work, Rukia, Nel!” Ichigo shouted gratefully, running across the room to deal with the last raging Quincy.
            Rukia’s “Unnecessary” was drowned out by Nel’s flamboyant “Thank you, Ichigo~♥” Twitterpated, Rukia thought dismally of the giggly Arrancar’s behavior. She was absolutely twitterpated.
            Now Candice was sparring with Halibel alone. But soon, it wasn’t one-on-one. “How dare you attack Halibel-sama!!”
            “You are quite foolish, even for a Quincy.”
            “We’ll slaughter you!”
            Candice was not as sharp-tongued as before, now that vicious weapons were swinging at her from all directions, but she was much angrier. It was all she could do just to zip around and get some space from them, if only to be cornered by the much more lethal Espada. Javelins of electricity could only fend off two or three of those big sword swings before they dissipated and she needed to regroup.
            Worse yet! With all the commotion and Bambietta still running wild on her hunt for Giselle, more and more dust was stirring up! Dammit! Didn’t anyone appreciate how she managed to make herself look this good in so short a time after a week stewing in some creep’s hot spring?!
            On the other side of the room…
            “Wait, Bambi-chan! Don’t-don’t be so angry!” Gigi had run out of places to hide and was staring down the length of Bambietta’s gleaming sword. The Explode was positively shaking with rage, a bomb herself ready to go off and leave Gigi splattered all over the room!
            “How dare you,” she hissed, and then brought the blade across her body, gripping it with both hands to really make a severing blow. Gigi howled in terror, “You look so cute when you’re angry!”
            That was true. Bambi would acknowledge that Gigi’s last words were at least truthful.
            Or they would have been if someone hadn’t kept her blade from swinging. Who…? Doesn’t matter! Maybe not by sword, but Gigi would die in this explosion! Roaring, Bambietta detonated everything around her, from the one who barehandedly held her blade at bay to the guilty one right in front of her.
            But Ichigo was quick enough; not only to save himself, but to catch the other potential casualty and whisk her out of harm’s way. Instinctively, Gigi clutched Ichigo around the neck and swooned. “My hero♥”
            No time to play games. Ichigo dropped her off rather unceremoniously, pivoted, and shot back into the spreading cloud of dirt and destruction, where Bambietta panted and awaited the gruesomeness of her offenders.
            But no, she felt it, much to her rage. They were both still alive! Damn pests! She’d fire a bomb right into the chest of the one approaching through the shroud. She instinctively knew.
            Her first thought was So this is Kurosaki Ichigo. He came closer, and she balked just slightly with her second thought: He’s my type. But this was battle. Cut out the middle part of bedding him; she’ll skip straight to killing him. That stoic, cool expression of his really pissed her off. He looked like he was ready to take her on. The dust concealed his movements, but she’d predict the attack. Was it with blade, or was he using hands now, was it left or was it right, up or down?
            It was none. That face of his passed right by her, like she wasn’t even there, although she knew he saw her! “Wha-what?!” she snapped, turning after him angrily. Did he just… ignore her?! She seethed, clutching the handle of her sword, trembling in rage. Just what was more important than confronting her?!
            The struggle with Candice was winding down. Where she had once been able to contend – defensively – with four Arrancar, now she could barely take on single-handed bouts. She gave wild, vicious attacks, but it was more that it was a bother to dodge them that the Arrancar women moved in rotation.
            “Dammit,” panted the electric Quincy. Her reishi lightning bolts were half the size of normal and even less stabilized! If this went on, she’d run out of energy completely. And when she looked to the clamor of Bambi at the other side of the room – an explosion surely meant to have taken out Gigi – there was a dust cloud spreading fast.
            I avoided as much of it as I could! Her eyes widened in terror. She might as well have been facing a downward stroke from a fully-charged Zaraki Kenpachi, there was such defeat in her eyes.
            Knowing what it meant, she disengaged her javelins, wrapped her hands into her hair, and braced for a nightmare of a bad hair day.
            Except for the arrival of Kurosaki Ichigo, lunging from the dust with a mighty, reverberating shout. “Getsuga…!”
            Candice reflexively pulled back. No defense! No time to even make one! What a cheap shot!
            The energy gathered in his blade, glowing a majestic yellow. He pulled it around… all the way around, full circle, cleaving only the air above Candice’s Quincy cap before turning his attack to the cloud itself. “Tensho!”
            The concentrated, well-angled swipe achieved the objective. The raw energy and abiding wind currents stole the mass of the dust cloud, and like Halibel’s earlier Ressureccíon, it was banished to the harmless openness outside – just without the rainbow.
            Ichigo touched down on the floor in front of Candice, his back to her. She, having thought the worst was about to happen, collapsed, her stamina completely stolen. Her eyes wavered, her mind trying to make sense of what just happened. “What… What the hell was that?!”
            Ichigo turned his head to her, and gave her a very meaningful look that took her aback. She couldn’t decipher it. Just what was that look supposed to mean?! He wasn’t smiling or frowning. He just gave her a short glance, his eyebrows relaxed, his eyes…
            Candice suddenly blinked and felt… charged.
            But little matter for that when rings of light snagged and neutralized her. “Take a breather, Chan-Candi! Let’s all relax!” Oh-Etsu said, still pointing his guns to her.
            “I told you this would happen,” said Liltotto, now emerging from where she was waiting in the next room. “They’re all idiots.”
            “Hmm! But Ichigo is doing a fine job of handling them!” said Ichibe, having arrived on scene just to watch the action unfold. And sure enough, the Soul King didn’t disappoint. Without thought or instruction, he rallied his capable wives – some still lagging further down the corridor – and handled the threat. Whatever damage was done to the Palace—He nodded to himself—Inoue Orihime should be able to fix.
            Lowering his weapons, Ichigo breathed a sigh of relief. The commotion was over… but he had still missed one. “Kurosaki!!” Bambietta was coming down on him from the air, poising a bomb to enter through his skull and end the Soul King.
            “Hup!” Ichigo sidestepped, treating it more like a heavy dance than a deadly encounter. He watched her, his eyes concerned by the explosion of her attack. It seemed she could take getting dirty without much of a fuss. That or she used the anger of her white cape and clothes being tarnished to fuel her attack. She swapped to her sword, making brutal swipe at his throat and gut. What he did not simply dodge, he would parry with simple backstrokes of his own swords. Bambietta’s attacks bounced back.
            “Damn you!” She stayed her hand, holding the sword out in front of her with both hands, panting heavily; more enraged than actually tired.
            “Just stop,” Ichigo told her, his guard lax. “Whatever it is, we’ll talk through it.”
            “Are you kidding me? Talk through it?!” She lunged then, going for his neck again. “There’s nothing to talk about! You are the enemy!”
            At the side, helping the suppression of Meninas with force and Squad Zero-level Bakudo spells, Nel gave a start to Ichigo’s plight. He was well-above Bambietta’s skill level now – her powers dampened even further with the defeat of the Quincy King – but seeing cold, murderous steel biting at him put anxiety in her belly. “Ichigo!” She’d suppress the Quincy for him…!
            If not for Tenjiro stepping in her way. “Let him do this on his own. This ain’t even about wives now.” He looked over his shoulder and watched the nakedhanded Soul King fight the last standing Quincy.
            “Just die!!” Bambietta charged her hands out in front of her, unleashing a barrage of her signature attack. But of course, all useless against him. He retreated, and she chased. Sword swing, duck, reishi bombs, hop, more bombs, skyborne, chase. Just destruction and calamity everywhere.
            Just die! kept repeating in her mind as she followed Kurosaki Ichigo. He was designated as an enemy from the start. Now, he was the enemy! The cause of all things horrible for the Quincy. He was the Soul King, so he had to die! As long as he died, then nothing… nothing…!!
            “Nothing matters!!” she shrieked, and everything exploded around her. Too close for comfort even for Ichigo; his new haori singed at the corner, and he could feel Senjumaru’s cold eyes narrow.
            “I guess that’s it, then,” said Ichibe merrily, as though something had happened that the others had not picked up on. Liltotto looked up at him for an answer, but the rumbling distracted her.
            By her own doing, Bambietta had destroyed too much of the Soul Palace, and the structure was giving way at the balcony. The room slanted harshly, threatening to spill out anyone on the incline; Ichigo was on the precipice, his legs stretching with one foot on two levels.
            “Ichigo!” Orihime and Riruka had finally arrived, the former calling out to their husband.
            “Orihime!” he shouted back. “Hurry, try to fix it before…!”
            “Too late now,” Ichibe observed, his eyes on the smoldering Quincy now grabbing helplessly at the incline. Snarling, a rage and hatred flashing in her eyes, she seemed determined to live, as if she would pierce the stone with her fingertips. It was useless. She was going to fall, and unless someone was willing to risk their lives…
            “Bambi-chan! Bambi-chan!” Giselle Gewelle ran to the edge, falling to her hands and knees, looking like she was going to cry her heart out as she met Bambi’s frantic glare. “I’ll find you…! Hic! When you splatter, I’ll find you and bring you back!”
            Bambietta seethed in unkempt rage. “Gigi! I’ll kill…!”
            No time to even contemplate that thought. She was freefalling in the plunging blue of the Soul King’s domain, unable to right herself, unable to fight the gravity rejecting her presence, unable to do anything but plummet. Gigi wailed after her, once again giving her oath.
            “I guess that’s one potential gone, then,” Tenjiro heartlessly said. “What a waste of a bath…”
            “Orihime!” Ichigo wasn’t done, and he wasn’t going to listen to Ichibe. “Fix the damage!”
            All eyes turned to him. Fix the damage? Was that really so important right now?
            Not more important than him jumping out of the palace and nosediving for the falling Quincy.
            Several hearts skipped a beat, Tenjiro bit down in moderate interest, Senjumaru gave a huff of a chuckle and Kirio chortled in approval; Ichibe gave a great smile.
            Neither Riruka nor Nel shared their amusement. Without thinking, the two of them rushed after him. “Ichigo!” “You idiot!” They were going to throw their lives away just for a chance to save him! And Squad Zero couldn’t have that. Before they could succumb to the dense and unforgiving reishi too, Kirio held out her huge spoon like a paddle to catch Nel; Riruka was strung up like a puppet on Senjumaru’s hands.
            “Where do you think you’re going?” Senjumaru said snidely.
            “I thought you’d be smarter than that, Nel-chan!” the Grain King admonished, bringing the Arrancar back to safety.
            “But-but, Ichigo…!” Nel’s lips quivered.
            “Why didn’t you five go after him?!” Riruka screamed in her stead. “You’re supposed to be the royal guard, aren’t you?” She trembled, tears pricking her eyes as she considered what was just lost.
            “Heh! Who do you think you’re talking to, girl?” Tenjiro condemned her. “We’re Squad Zero, taking care of the Soul King for millennia.”
            “If there was any real danger,” Senjumaru proceeded for him, “we would have intervened.”
            Kirio shrunk her spoon and returned it to her hair. “You need to start understanding what Ichigo-chan is now.”
            “Ain’t no palace that throws out its own King,” Oh-Etsu scoffed.
            “Remember,” said the Monk, strolling to the falling balcony to look down, spotting the two dots becoming one fused dot. “There is only one way to enter these royal grounds, and that is with the Ouken. On difficult basis, we can open gateways to other worlds to allow passing, but those cost tremendous effort and time.”
            Riruka was unsatisfied with this answer. “What’s that got to do with anything?! Ichigo just fell!”
            Ichibe’s head inclined somewhat, his round eyes narrowing. “Ichigo has not become an imitation of us. We are modeled after what he has become.”
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            “Let go of me!”
            “Calm down, dammit!” Ichigo fought against her writhing fists. Luckily, there was no momentum for her fist to do any real damage when she hit his face; more of an annoyance than anything else. “Can’t you feel it?!” He caught the wrist that was mashing up his cheek. “The reishi’s even denser down here!”
            “I don’t care!” Bambietta pulled against his hand, but he stayed latched. Angrily, she hit against him again.
            “Just let me help you!” he snarled, grabbing the back of her head and shoving her into his chest. Her eyes widened when he did, the fight leaving her for a moment. Whatever the reason for her laxness, Ichigo couldn’t waste the opportunity. Grabbing the edges of his Captain’s cloak, he pulled them tight around him and her… her especially. He was dressed in the garb of Senjumaru-san herself, meant to suit the Soul King’s level. Hopefully, that meant they were as durable as the outfit he wore upon his return to Soul Society during the Quincy war. He himself felt more resistant to the pressure, but wouldn’t trust that he could just fall down without preparation. Best as he could, he also turned his head into his robes… and found himself nose-to-nose in darkness with the Quincy girl. Even in the dark confinement of his robes, her eyes were twinkling up at him.
            What was she thinking of him? Something was going on in her mind… but he couldn’t try to decipher it when he smelled the heat increasing around them. She was safe; they were falling on his back so far, so that heat was all him.
            And then the boom of air rupturing around them. Even she had to flinch from it, though he took the brunt. They’d broken through the membrane that separated the Royal Palace from the Soul Society. It injured him somewhat, but the change in atmosphere was felt by both of them. It was safe, reishi could be manipulated again, and she had no reason to be protected.
            The dark of his haori filled with malevolent blue, Bambietta’s eyes glaring as she shoved the bomb into his chest with wicked delight. Ichigo felt the charge in his body immediately. “You…!” The bomb went off, and Bambi fled the scene of the explosive execution, using her Hirenkyaku to escape the range of her own explosion.
            “Ha! Take that!” She ground her teeth together in unrepressed joy. “In the end, I was the one who killed Kurosaki Ichi…!”
            The plummeting bundle of smoke paused and hung in midair. She blinked a few times. Charred bodies didn’t do this; not that she had seen before, anyway. They fell and splattered no matter how high or low they were to the ground. There was forest beneath them – a few hundred feet, but her descent would be controlled now – so his corpse would be difficult to find and confirm… if it ever dropped.
            “Wow…”
            Bambi gasped. The voice was behind her! “How…?!”
            She spun around to find Kurosaki Ichigo, entirely unscathed and admiring just a little black mark on his clothing. “Senjumaru-san really outdid herself with this outfit. It really is durable.” He couldn’t even comprehend the effectiveness of it. The material actually absorbed the Quincy attack, distributing and diluting it throughout the rest of his clothes – which were, as he had now discovered, were durable. But it was also the natural suppression of his own reiatsu that smothered any damaging effects of The Explode.
            Bambietta was already done asking how, reverting instead to curses. “Damn you,” she hissed, and brought her sword back into play.
            “Hm?” It was just like play to Ichigo. She hadn’t even come close to slashing him before. Now, with open space, no one to worry about, and his energy all his again… “No time for this,” he said, catching her wrist in passing and then hurling her with all his might to the ground.
            Again, she was falling helplessly. Her teeth chattered as she watched him ascend. “No way!” She passed the treetops, and she could only brace for heavy impact with her Blue Vene if Ichigo didn’t intercept her, catching her bridal style with a playful “Gotcha!”
            “Uh!” Bambi quaked, her spiked adrenaline reaching to every part of her. She almost died by falling – twice – and was twice saved by this… this bastard! And now he was carrying her?! Like she was a defenseless woman needing rescuing?!
            “Get off of me!” She shoved out from his arms, and he had no problem letting her go, except for a scowl at her ungratefulness. Backing away, she kept a defensive stance. “Just what are you trying to do?!”
            “Hey, that’s my line,” Ichigo threw back at her. “I was just trying to help you after you attacked me! You even tried to blow me up!”
            “So why didn’t you?!”
            “Don’t say that like I did something bad!”
            “You were supposed to explode!!”
            “I just said don’t say it like I did a bad thing!!”
            The two were quickly escalating to another bout, but were interrupted by the open, empty roar of a Hollow. The earth beneath their feet shook and roiled as the monstrous, dormant beast rose from the forest in response to plentiful, delicious power. It towered over the two of them, long neck, reptilian face with flat but sharp teeth, tendrils flailing about it. And while Bambi readied herself immediately to contend with a natural enemy, Ichigo was a bit flabbergasted that such a thing would be lurking near the Soul Society.
            “It clearly went into hiding when we invaded,” Bambi explained to him. “What are you, an idiot?”
            Ichigo narrowed his eyes on her, an eyebrow twitching in annoyance. He got serious Riruka vibes from her…
            But the argument was over; she jumped into action as the tentacles turned to iron spears that demolished the ground where they stood. Brandishing her blade, she lopped the troupe of tentacles off, much to the Hollow’s raging annoyance. Just a Hollow, she thought as she landed on its slithering bulk. No high-speed regeneration, no ressureccíon, no real brains to contend with. Just raw, stupid power; a raw, stupid beast.
            Yet, as she looked to the side, Kurosaki Ichigo was fumbling on the ground. Her eye ticked. What sort of amateur struggled with such a low-level foe? True, its size was about half that of a Menos Grande, but it didn’t have a Menos’ durability.
            But what an opportunity! Bambi couldn’t keep herself from smiling. If he was staggering, for whatever reason, she had all the opportunity needed to rid his neck of his head! Leave the rest of the tentacles! Let them chase her and skewer him when she evaded to the side!
            Ichigo was feeling dizzy, like the world had turned on its axis, and then back again. He had brushed the Hollow’s skin only briefly, yet that triggered… memories? But not his. He saw a man… Him? With brown, straight hair, suit, job, wife, kids… Danger… fire in the house… He ran in, saved his youngest… He died, stuck around as a Plus… A Plus lamenting the loss of his life, the loss of his family… They cried, he cried, they stopped, he cried more… And his wife remarried… “No, no! Mira-chan!”… Chains of forlorn longing began to shackle him to the house, allowing him to try to communicate… They thought it was an evil haunting when pictures of him shattered and albums were pulled out of place… They left, and he remained shackled to an empty house and constant reminder… Until an afro-headed Shinigami appeared… Not a Shinigami, thought the man in fear! Reaper! Devil! Screaming, the Plus hurled himself through the portal that had opened for the Reaper, and that plunged him into a forest that nourished him with every choked breath. “No! Mira-chan! Senkyo! Honko-chan!” He clutched at the chains! They were so heavy that they began to peel the skin right off of him… He vomited, and then disintegrated… And when he came to, he was a wretched monster lost in the woods. After that was just mindless lumbering and an insatiable urge to consume… Luckily – for the residents of the Soul Society – he was secluded and hunkered down after time. There was nothing but rest…
            And a woman! Blazing through the air with the intent to stick him!
            Ichigo was back to himself, and with lightning-fast reflexes. She was annoying him now. “Dammit! Don’t you ever”—He grabbed and pulled at her extended arm, and as if she planned for that, she immediately went for his face with a precision attack; if all her concentration went into a single point, maybe she could put out his eye!—“stop?!” His shout resonated as his reiatsu flared; a massive display of power that even put Bambi on her knees. The Hollow froze up. In the form it amassed through lingering hatred, it had never contended with a power greater than itself. It locked up, its coils pulling inward, and rattled. Without even a Zanpakuto cutting its life short, it began to evaporate into reishi, to return to the cycle of realities as a pure spirit.
            “Did you… purify it?” Bambi asked, having not seen such a phenomenon. The Quincy, after all, expunged the Hollows from existence rather than purify them.
            “I-I think so,” Ichigo answered with uncertainty. “But how did…?” He felt lightheaded again, swaying as all sorts of images flashed through his mind. It was like he was living the lives of everything around him; insects, animals and birds, and even plants! The invisible weight on his shoulder tightened like it was reeling him in on a fishing line.
            What had confused her before, Bambietta now understood. It was the power of A The Almighty, only amplified by its rightful owner: the Soul King. There was a reason the Soul King was displaced from the realms he watched over, after all. Should he mingle too closely, he would become that which he protected and preserved. The dummy just couldn’t figure out how to check himself.
            So she pulled at the hand still gripping her sword hand; now was as good a chance as any! But his grip was unyielding. He broke from his stupor, regaining some sense to glare at her. “What’s your deal?! You attacked me instead of the Hollow?”
            “Of course I did!” she answered. “I could get rid of the Hollow easily, but I could have used its help to kill you!”
            …
            Ichigo wouldn’t disagree that it was a solid plan if not for his godly powers of reiatsu suppression.
            “It’s not going to work,” he said finally, and knocked the sword from her hand with little effort; she scowled. “We’re done here now, and we…” He grunted and winced. “… we have to get back up to the Royal Palace.”
            “You do!” She pointed up at him, leaning in close. “You Shinigami chose to revive me, so that’s all on you! I didn’t agree to any treaty and I don’t want to stick around any Palace… and I don’t want to marry you!!”
            Ichigo figured that would come out eventually. He scoffed and rubbed his head. “It wasn’t my idea,” he clarified, and then looked at her, “and I’m not asking you to…”
            The rain started abruptly and heavily, interrupting their dialogue. Bambi made a noise of annoyance and pulled herself into her cloak. Ichigo glanced up to the sky to check. It didn’t look like rain at all! “Where did this come from?!”
            “uuuuh…”
            Ichigo’s ears picked up the sound in the forest.
            Bambietta was already moving, away from him, gathering up her sword and sheathing it. She was done fighting… for now. She’d just come back from being a zombie; her skills and instincts were dulled. It might be some time before she got another chance, but right now, the new Soul King was just too much trouble. Candi and Meni could deal with him up in the Palace, or Lili… Gigi, hopefully, would die.
            “Wait!”
            Hearing him say that infuriated her. She spun on her heel, pitched her fists down in a raging pose, and barked back at him with gnashing teeth, “I said I’m not going with you! Be glad you’ll live a bit longer… huh?”
            Ichigo tackled her, brought her down in a roll on the wet ground, and saved her life from the point of a broken Zanpakuto. “What the…?”
            “What the hell are they?!” Ichigo got off of her before she could make a big deal of his weight pinning her down. He could see them, ambling through the trees, closing in on him and the Quincy girl who hadn’t gotten up yet.
            But, when she rolled over and got on her knees, she knew exactly what they were. “Gigi’s backup. That Hollow must have been hoarding them, eating them.”
            Shinigami and Quincy soldats alike, all shuffling stupidly and slowly, groaning mournfully.
            “Backup?”
            Bambi nodded and explained, “When we first arrived. Driscoll The Overkill made a lot of bodies.” Her nose wrinkled in disdain. “Gigi went after and collected the bodies, turned them all into zombies.”
            “Turned them into zombies? What kind of power is that?!”
            “The Schrift ‘Z’, The Zombie, bestowed by His Majesty.”
            Ichigo gave her a look; a strange one that made her defensively shout, “It wasn’t me! It was Gigi!” She didn’t know why, but she didn’t like the way that look of reproach made her feel. She shook it away and switched to forming reishi in the hollows of her clenching hands. “I’ll crush them a-”
            Ichigo held out a hand to stop her. “No, don’t do anything.”
            She looked up at him, reflected, and then snapped, “I told you to stop doing things for me!”
            Somberly, he turned his eyes back to her. He didn’t speak. Just silence but for the rain… Then he moved towards the masses. To a flash-stepping master of Ichigo’s caliber, really, they weren’t dangerous at all. He sneered a little and said to himself, “It’s like something out of a horror movie.”
            A soldat charged, the body surging with a blade. Ichigo sidestepped, touched the rotting body, and it was vanquished. Not unlike the Hollow, its restless existence was put down to return to the balance of reality.
            Bambietta quaked in place as she watched the Soul King move from zombie to zombie, purifying them in some sort of reverence. As they were now, they were nothing more than damned souls and bones that, like Hollows shot by a Quincy arrow, upset the balance between Seireitei and the Human World just by existing. The reishi particles were trapped in this un-aging, unchanging form, and would stay put unless dealt with.
            It’d be easier just to destroy them! Bambietta’s fists tightened. She needed to destroy these things! Needed to!
            “Rah~!” She flung herself into the Soul King’s cleansing procession, going for the next soldat he planned to release from its immortal coil. By her hand, she infused her explosive reishi into the zombie’s skull and showed great satisfaction when it burst gruesomely, ending Ichigo’s chance to convert it.
            “Ha!” Bambietta sneered in the Soul King’s face, to show she wasn’t afraid of him. Her elbows pushed out her cape as her fists tucked onto her shapely hips. “See?! It’s as easy as that! So unless you want to get blown up, stay out of my…!”
            Once again, Ichigo looked at her without saying anything, and it disturbed her more than any look from a man should. She recoiled slightly with a small, threatening snarl. What was that look?! Was that… pity?!
            “Stop…” She shook angrily. “Stop looking at me like that!” Bombs materialized around her and shot out in all directions, bringing mass destruction to the forest around them. Trees turned to splinters and craters filled the even terrain. The only unmarred location was within the ranks of the zombies, for Ichigo would not let a single bomb eradicate another vessel. As quickly as he could, cursing at the predicament – it would all be easier if she could just calm down – he leapt from zombie to zombie, sometimes needing to dodge blade or hands, but the process was a simple one, and before another bomb had to be crushed by a flex of his reiatsu, the last Shinigami dissipated in the air and left Soul King and the Quincy alone.
            And she was furious.
            “Why?!” she yelled with an outward swing of her arm, her voice carrying over the heavy downpour. Ichigo was walking briskly to her, but she wasn’t backing down. If he was going to reprimand her, he was also going to get turned into a bomb at pointblank! “I could’ve destroyed all of them!”
            He came closer and closer… and then walked right by her.
            … What?
            Left facing forward, baffled, it took a moment for the infuriated Bambi to pivot. “Where are you going?!”
            “I need to get back to the Royal Palace. Ah~! I’m getting a headache being down here with you,” he said back to her without even looking.
            How dare he…?!
            He was giving her the opportunity to part ways and live life how she wanted. But that wasn’t enough for her! She needed to win this fight, even if it wasn’t with swords or bombs. “Hold on!” She gave chase. “You think you can just ignore me?!”
            “I’m leaving you alone.” He at least granted her a glance over his shoulder, though he was irritated. “There’s a difference.”
            There was. Bambi wouldn’t accept it! He was an enemy, and an enemy didn’t leave her alone! It was win or execution!
            “Wait a second!” She was wising up to the fact that he was just better than her – or she just wasn’t at the top of her game – so instead of making a thrust with her sword, she reached out and grabbed his robes. To pull him off balance, it might be easier for her to lasso a tree next to her and uproot it with her pinky. He felt so firmly place, so unyielding. All the same, he turned to look at her, but not with one of those vexing looks Bambietta couldn’t understand. It was honest confusion; eyebrows raised slightly, mouth a straight line, eyes gleaming.
            He really was…
            …
            How about… Maybe before…
            He really was good looking, kind of her type as she had first thought. She was stressed… and it’d be a shame…
            “Well, well, well! I look to see what was causing a commotion so close to home, thinking I’d find a nuisance! Instead, I’ve found a King!”
            Ichigo and Bambietta turned quickly to the source of the voice, standing with an umbrella on an outcropping of rocks. From the tilt of her bamboo umbrella, the face was covered, but by voice and shape of the body, it was a woman. Wooden sandals, white skirt down beneath her knees, a red robe that could hardly contain the fullness of her bosoms. A missing right arm…
            Ichigo’s eyes widened in recognition. Bambietta just remained annoyed by this interruption.
            The umbrella eased back, the rain steadily becoming a lighter drizzle. “Yo,” Kukaku greeted with her sharp, flashy smile. “How’s it going, cousin?”
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The Royal Palace Brides