Chapter 42: Yolanda and Yosei the Ryoka Assassins 1/2

(A/N: Like I said, I love the weekends. Here's to more Soul Chess. Oh by the way with this chapter Soul Chess officially becomes my longest fic to date)

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Code Geass

3rd Person pov

Kukaku watched the sun go down as Isane healed Kaien and Ichigo. As she stood there though she suddenly felt a very large spiritual pressure headed their way. She turned towards Isane. "Kotetsu-fukutaicho hide!" she shouted. A captain had to be headed their way and the sensation wasn't Lelouch or Tosen's. This could be bad. Kukaku thought to herself. Isane quickly cast Bakudo 26 over herself, Ichigo and Kaien as fast as she could.

Kukaku put a grip on her sword, ready to draw it out and engage the oncoming opponent. I don't know how long I'll last against a captain, but I'm not going down without a fight.

However, much to her surprise the person who showed up was not a captain. It was a short individual with white hair of whom Kukaku instantly recognized.

She sighed in relief and let go of her blade handle. "Oh, it's just you Toshiro." She called back into the distance. "It's okay Kotetsu-fukutaicho, it's just Toshiro." She looked back at the short Soul Reaper. "You had me scared there for a minute. I thought we were about to be in hot water. I mistook you for a captain."

It was true. Hitsugaya Toshiro had recently obtained and was still learning to master Bankai. It was stable enough that he could easily be captain class, but he there were times where controlling it was simply impossible.

"Just what are you doing all the way out here?" Kukaku asked.

"The captain asked me to keep a close eye on the two of you." Hitsugaya told her. "I thought I should let you know that company is on its way. You should make yourselves scare. I'll try to throw off the patrols."

"Kukaku-san we can escape into the sewers, we'll be fine there." Isane told her. Kukaku nodded in acknowledgement. "Right. Thanks Toshiro." She and Isane ducked out of sight with the unconscious Kaien and Ichigo.

Tenth Division patrol units showed up on Hitsugaya's location. "Man what happened here?" one of the Soul Reapers asked. "It looks like the aftermath of a war zone."

"That's probably because it is." Hitsugaya stated. "Whatever happened here both parties seemed to have vanished or moved on. Spread out and search men."

"Yes sir, 3rd seat sir!" The members stated.

Meanwhile, Kendra and Stefan were coming back to their division. "Just how hard is it to apprehend five Ryoka plus Shiba Kukaku and former Executive Militia Commander Soifon?" the irate lieutenant asked. "Are our forces really that incompetent that they can't spot five random people and two familiar faces?" she brooded.

Stefan nodded. "Un. It almost seems like they had to have this invasion planned in advance. Or perhaps someone or something is throwing off our patrols."

"According to Lamperouge-taicho Madarame Ikkaku and Ayasegawa Yumichika were defeated together and Ikkanzaka Jirobo was found a steaming compost pile. That means two groups have been encountered. The third is still going strong." Kendra noted.

"And? Point?" Stefan asked scratching his head. Anyone could've figured out what Kendra just said. It didn't need to be pointed out.

"I'm just calling things as I see it." Kendra responded. "Still…this invasion is too well crafted. Either the enemy is really lucky or someone's helping them. Do you think that it's possible Zero might be up to his old tricks?"

"The phantom disappears for twenty solid years and then all of a sudden shows up again?" Stefan pondered. "It's possible. This might be a part of his plan actually. Most might have forgotten about him by now or thought he's disappeared. This might be the opportunity he's been waiting for."

Kendra pondered the data at her disposal further. "Lamperouge-taicho said one of the groups contained a Quincy. As far as we know right now that group hasn't encountered any major players."

"I think I see where your logic is headed Kendra." Stefan smirked and then called in a booming voice. "Yosei! Yolanda!"

In a flash two Soul Reapers appeared. One was a man with short black hair and a woman with long, frizzy platinum blonde hair going down to her shoulders. "Sir!" They both saluted as they bowed on one knee with one hand on their raised knee and the other balled into a fist and pushed into the ground.

"Information has come up that informs us that one of the Ryoka is a Quincy. As two this squad's elite operatives I don't think it will be trouble for you to find and either disable or kill him and his partner." Stefan stated.

"Absolutely not taicho." Yosei said.

"You can count on us sir." Yolanda added.

"Good, get going and don't disappoint." Stefan ordered.

"Hai, taicho!" Both officers declared and left.

"Sir, why not just send me out?" Kendra asked. "I can easily defeat a mere Quincy."

"Relax Kendra. Your chance in battle will come. There's no reason to exhaust my more powerful resources when my less powerful ones might suffice. Madarame Ikkaku, Ayasegawa Yumichika and Ikkanzaka Jirobo were all taken down, but not all third, fourth and fifth seats are equal. Our squad specializes in assassinations and swift, clean kills. Of all the divisions of the Gotei 13 our division has the lowest casualty and injury count ever since I took office. You have to be really perceptive to take out or evade the knife aiming for your skull thrown by one of our officers. So let's just wait and see so that we may determine how powerful of an enemy we are truly dealing with." Stefan stated.

While Yosei and Yolanda headed off into the evening to strike down Uryu and Chad, Isane was continuing to heal Kaien and Ichigo under the ground. Kaien was already back on his feet and awake, Ichigo was just unconscious.

"How are you feeling?" Kukaku asked her brother.

"Better." Kaien answered. "I think I'm good now."

"Good? Good for what?" Kukaku asked.

Kaien turned to leave. "I'm going to go and have a chat with my captain and see if there's anything we can do about stopping the execution."

Kukaku leaned up against the wall and grinned with her arms folded. "Heh. Ukitake's never been one to be close minded so that might just work. Just don't go blabbing about Zero and Lelouch okay?"

"Yeah, I know. I'm not that incompetent." Kaien stated and prepared to leave. "Say goodbye to the kid for me."

"Kaien, wait." Kukaku said before Kaien took even five steps. The Shiba clan leader stopped in his tracks. "What should we about our cousin here?" Kukaku asked.

"We do nothing sis." Kaien told her. "It's not our place to say. If Ichigo doesn't already know about his heritage then we don't say a word. Isshin obviously didn't want him to grow up knowing about all this. Besides that might just make him more cocky and arrogant if he thinks he's something special, you know? He might even get pissed at me for trying to kill him. I say we wait. He'll find out eventually one way or the other." Kaien said and walked away.

About five minutes after Kaien left, Ichigo came to. "Rise and shine sleepy head." Kukaku told him.

"Ugh." Ichigo responded.

"How are you feeling?" Isane asked him. She was leaned forward on her knees, not realizing she was letting Ichigo see down her robe.

"I-I'm fine." He responded. "I…uh…" he turned his gaze away.

Isane noticed then looking down at herself that the folds of her robe were undone a bit. "Aah!" she cried out. "You hentai!" She shrieked covering herself.

"It's not like I was trying to look." Ichigo barked back.

"All right you two that's enough." Kukaku said walking forward. "Kotetsu-fukutaicho, didn't you say you found something interesting when examining Ichigo?"

"Ah, right." Isane said and picked up a white mask with red lines alone left side of the cranium. "This was in the shoulder of your robe." She told him. "It protected you from where you got stabbed by Shiba-fukutaicho's trident."

"This thing?" Ichigo asked.

"Personally I think you should get rid of it. It looks really ominous, but Kukaku-san said it was up to you." Isane told him.

"Of course I'm gonna hang onto it. This thing saved my life didn't it? Sounds like a good luck charm to me." Ichigo said and extended his hand out.

"And there you have it." Kukaku said.

Isane surrendered the white mask to Ichigo who set it aside since his robe had been removed to treat his injuries.

"Where are we anyway?" Ichigo asked.

"The sewers underneath the Seireitei." Kukaku answered. "They're an underground network that's maintained by the fourth division of which Kotetsu-fukutaicho is the lieutenant of."

"It would be odd for Ryoka to know about it so we're safe down here. We should be thankful Lamperouge-taicho is on our side." Isane stated.

Kukaku laughed. "Yeah, if he was the enemy he'd have guards stationed in some of the most peculiar places just to be on the safe side."

"Just how amazing is that Lelouch guy anyway?" Ichigo asked.

"Huh?" Kukaku looked down at Ichigo. "What do you mean?"

"Well I mean…he got so many of you to just blatantly abandon your duties to help us. I thought maybe he might be a cruel, manipulative person of some sort, but the way you talk about him so fondly he seems like a really smart friend you all have." Ichigo said.

"Oh you're not wrong about that. Lelouch can be a downright sick and twisted bastard when he wants to be, but for the most part he's not such a bad guy once you get to know him." Kukaku said manhandling her pipe as she spoke.

"We all trust Lamperouge-taicho because while he does act cruel sometimes it's not without good reason." Isane stated.

"Kind of like you really." Kukaku stated.

Ichigo snorted at being compared to Lelouch. "Oh please."

"You know on top of that you two almost sound alike. I wish we had Lelouch here to compare." Kukaku chuckled.

"All right that's enough." Ichigo sighed, tired of the topic.

"Ah, you think so?" Isane asked Kukaku.

"It'd be easier to tell if Lelouch were actually here, but I'd venture they sound similar." Kukaku said.

"I said that's enough." Ichigo said louder and then clutched his chest. "Ow."

"Ah, you're going to open up your wounds again Kurosaki-san, you need to take it easy." Isane said and got some more ointment and rubbed it on Ichigo's stab wound where fresh blood had started to seep through the bandages.

Awake now though, Ichigo was more 'sensitive' to Isane's delicate touch. To make things worse the shift in her arm made her robe slide down again, exposing a bit of cleavage. She noticed Ichigo's red face after she applied the ointment.

She covered herself, red again. "Stop looking at me like that!" she protested.

"I'm not doing it on purpose dammit!" Ichigo shouted.

Kukaku sighed with a grin. This excursion just got a bit livelier.

Topside, Uryu and Chad were making their way through the torch lit walkways of the Seireitei. Many guards were asleep so sneaking around was easy as long as Chad didn't accidentally knock something over because he wasn't being careful. The pair's combo had worked great thus far, but it was horrible for stealth.

For most of their battles Uryu would use his bow to draw the enemy forward. The Soul Reapers would charge and Chad would stand in front of them and engage multiple officers at once while Uryu picked off his attackers one by one from a distance. It had served them well and so far the damage the two had sustained zero injuries between them.

The pair skulked about through the night making excellent progress. However, as they came to another bend Chad grew tense.

"What's the matter Sado?" Uryu asked him.

"I just got this strange sensation." Chad said staring up at the moon.

"What kind of sensation?" Uryu asked.

Chad looked back forward. "I get this awful feeling like we're being hunted." Chad said.

Uryu pushed in his glasses. "Well, hopefully it's nothing, but just in case it's not, you watch my back and I'll watch yours." Uryu stated. Chad nodded. I don't feel anything. If we really are being targeted than whomever is after us must be really good at concealing their reiatsu.

Back underground, Ichigo and the others were taking things easy. Kukaku had started a fire using the compost in a nearby garbage can and her lighter. "Say, Isane-san," Ichigo said to the tall silverette.

"Yes?" Isane asked.

"What are you going to do come tomorrow morning?" Ichigo asked her.

"That's a good question." Kukaku agreed. "How 'bout it Kotetsu-fukutaicho? You going back to Unohana-taicho or are you sticking with us?"

"I…uh…" Isane thought about what Unohana would say or do if she found out that Isane was patrolling around with the Ryoka. Even if she went back now, what if Unohana punished her simply for abandoning her post? Isane turned blue and shuddered at the thought. "I…think I'll stay with you two." She said with a hint of fear in her voice.

"Great, glad to have you." Ichigo said with a smile.

"Y-yeah." Isane said, still trying to banish the thoughts from her head of being punished by her captain.

"You two get some rest. I'll keep watch." Kukaku said.

"Un." Ichigo nodded and leaned back against the wall to get some sleep.

While Ichigo and Isane slept soundly, Uryu and Chad were coming closer to their impending, potential doom. The elite operatives of the 2nd Division: 4th seat Bermuta Yolanda and 3rd seat Samakura Yosei were keeping a close, watchful eye on the pair. They were currently studying their targets movement patterns and now were just waiting for the golden opportunity to strike. The attack would be swift, stealthy, and potentially lethal. Yolanda thought about releasing her Zanpakuto right now, but didn't want the declaration to be what set off the targets on red alert. The same went for Yosei.

They watched their prey like a tiger stalking an unsuspecting gazelle. Only these tigers weren't stalking gazelles. They were stalking other tigers. Chad and Uryu ducked around several corners and down a few more alleyways. Yosei and Yolanda took notice of their targets movement patterns. The pair split up slightly. They were far enough apart that they couldn't hear each other's breath and they could barely see each other in the darkness, but could easily sense the masked reiatsu of the other person. Yosei watched from behind, Yolanda observed from the front. And then Chad and Uryu walked straight into a dead end. The opportunity had come at last.

Without warning Yosei dropped down from his perch and attacked Chad with his sword. Chad barely saw Yosei's attack coming. Thankfully Uryu had noticed it just moment before Yosei had dropped down and let lose a flurry of arrows using his oddly shaped bow. Uryu had asked his grandfather to teach him the power of the Sanrei Glove, but his grandfather said that it would be too dangerous. Instead, the old man gave Uryu an even greater power: Ginrei Kojaku.

Yosei was blown back by the flurry and sent flying away, but just as Uryu came off that attack, Yolanda made her move and made to attack him, but Chad stopped her using his arm and blocked her sword. Yolanda back flipped twice and landed just above the dead end block.

"Well that could've gone better." Yosei stated.

"Who are you people?" Uryu asked, bow string already drawn back.

"We are two of the elite members of the second division known for its stealth and assassinations. I am 3rd seat Samakura Yosei." Yosei declared walking out of the rubble, having seen to have received no damage other than that his Shihakusho was now covered in several layers of dust and gravel.

"And I am the 4th seat Bermuta Yolanda." Yolanda stated.

"By order of our captain Lusca Stefan, we have been asked to eliminate you Ryoka." Yosei stated. "Of course if you surrender we'll spare you the beating and potential death."

"Thanks but no thanks." Uryu stated and aimed his bow at Yosei. "We have an objective. Assassins or no, we intend to go on."

"That's too bad." Yolanda said. "Now we have to kill you."

"Here they come!" Uryu declared. Yosei disappeared in a flash and attacked Uryu at his right flank. The young Quincy shot a few arrows at the trained assassin, but he slashed them away with his sword. His reflexes are fast.

Yolanda attacked Chad with her sword. Chad pushed down on her sword and threw a punch, connecting with the woman's ribcage, sending her flying. Yolanda however came off it like it was nothing and attacked again. Chad jumped out the way this time. He fired an energy blast, which Yolanda marked the size of, but jumped out of the way.

Uryu fired several dozen arrows at Yosei, but the nimble member of the Onmitsukido dodged or blocked most of them, coming off the barrage with only a few scratches. Damn this isn't working. "Yolanda!" he called.

The two switched opponents.

That's odd, why would they switch? Uryu asked himself. The woman was more of match suited for Chad with her strength while the man was nimbly dodging my arrows. Realization hit. Unless they plan to release their Zanpakuto.

"Fly, Testuryu!" (Iron Dragon) Yosei spun his sword as a red aura seemed to follow his swing. The blade, the guard and the handle turned bright silver. He charged at Chad who barely had time to stop the strike and went sailing back to another location with the 3rd seat.

"Sado!" Uryu called out in worry.

"Where are you looking four eyes? Your opponent is over here." Yolanda spoke calmly. Uryu turned to see the blonde with her Zanpakuto resting on her shoulder and her hand on her scabbard. She crossed the two objects over in front of her. "Shed no tears, Akki Satsugai!" (Fiend Slayer) Yolanda's sword became a marble white colored sawed off shotgun. Her scabbard turned into a black Assault Rifle. The kosode on Yolanda's uniform transformed into a long trench coat and, leaving her top only covered by her white shitagi. "Let's get this party started shall we?" she asked. She opened fire on Uryu with her assault rifle. Uryu began running and fired back several arrows to try and keep up with Yolanda's excessive firing. The two projectile specialists began trading blows as each one began to knick the other in the shoulders and legs. Uryu, being a living being, was hurt worse by the shots.

Meanwhile Chad was still trying to contend with the power that Yosei seem to have unnaturally acquired ever since his Zanpakuto release. His strikes were very powerful. Chad had no means of pushing the guy off whenever he struck and had already taken nick in the arm. He dodged to the side as Yosei swung and then let loose an energy blast. Yosei was blown away and went careening through the wall. That's weird, before when Uryu fought him he was still rather nimble. I don't think his defense was this weak originally.

Yosei got up from the rumble, and before the dust settled spun his sword creating a yellow aura around his Zanpakuto during the spin. He charged at Chad again who didn't see the attack coming and took a nice little scratch in the shoulder. Man what's this guy made of? Bricks? Yosei questioned.

His attack just now was much weaker than before. Chad noted. Yosei came back at him. It was so fast Chad didn't see it and took a nick in his left arm. However, I think he's suddenly gotten a lot faster.

While Chad contended with the mystery of Tetsuryu, Uryu was still trying to combat with Yolanda's guns. The two were exchanging shots and deflecting each other's projectiles with each other's projectiles, but the battle seemed to be headed straight for a dead end as they ran along the roof firing at each other. Yolanda, however, memorized the outlay of the terrain and as they reached the end of the roof she used Shunpo and pulled back. She jumped over to Uryu's side of the roof. As Uryu ran off the edge of the roof, rather tripped over it as Yolanda's disappearance had surprised him and the skidding sent him off the edge, Yolanda took aim at him with her shotgun. Say goodnight Quincy boy. She said and fired.

Uryu heard the shot ring out and using Hirenkyaku disappeared in an instant an appeared right behind Yolanda. He knew where she was simply from the angle at which he heard the bullet being fired. He pelted the assassin with arrows and drove her straight into the ground.

Elsewhere, Chad and Yosei were still going at it. Chad had now taken several nicks and dings along his body and Yosei was still as fast as ever. He even managed to dodge Chad's energy blast. Chad was having trouble adjusting. Yosei came in, but as he struck at Chad the large half-Mexican could feel the blade cutting against his skin and dodged, lessening the damage. I'm starting to be able to feel when he strikes. I can use that to try and stop him. Chad said to himself.

Yosei, however, had perceived that Chad was starting to get used to his form and stopped to spin his sword. The aura following the spin was blue this time.

Wait a minute, wasn't that aura red when he first released his Zanpakuto? Chad asked himself.

Yosei didn't stop to confirm or deny Chad's suspicion. A good assassin never gave his target tips or tricks on how to win. He charged back at Chad.

He's slower than before. I can stop him. Chad blocked Yosei's swing and then threw a punch only for Yosei to block it with his blade. He stopped me?