If Gin’s last attack could’ve been described as a flash of silver, this one would be a tidal wave of silver light.

It crashed into my Rho Aias like a tidal wave and I grunted with the effort it took to keep it from sweeping me off my feet. The first two layers cracked and shattered under the continuous assault but Gin’s attack failed to break the third. Still, I felt the sympathetic pain that came with the first two layers breaking but I had ignored much more painful injuries than that and pushed through it easily.

Stupid shield. I mentally complained with gritted teeth. What’s the point in using it if blocking an attack still hurts?

It was an idle complaint since I would take a bit of pain over trying to dodge a wide area attack as fast as Gin’s every time. It had been several seconds already and he hadn’t let up. There was no way I could consistently dodge something like this that long.

“Hmm, can’t say anything’s stood up to that attack before.” Gin purred as he finally stopped his attack. “And you learned some new tricks since we saw you.”

“I aim to please.”

He nodded. “Of course the bigger question is-” He blurred out of existence and reappeared to my right. “-is if you can keep up with me.”

I pulled my head back and felt the gust of air where Gin’s sword passed by. Looks like he figured out the easiest way past my shield was to go around it. Unfortunate too. I still didn’t have the control to keep Rho Aias materialised and move at the same time. I did have other tricks though.

Three swords materialised in midair, all of them glowing brightly as I overcharged the enchantments on them. It made them wildly unstable, but that was kinda the point wasn’t it?

The traced swords launched at Gin like bullets but I wasn’t even considering they had a chance of hitting him directly. The second they were within five feet of the ex-Captain the Trace Bullets exploded in red, blue, and green light.

As expected, a shape burst out of the resulting smoke and revealed the slightly burned form of my enemy. I mentally crossed Trace Bullets off the list of finishing attacks for this fight. Those three had been in the upper ranges I had for overcharging without using being either too slow to form or chewing through my mana reserves and they barely put a scratch on him.

“So no ya can’t. Isn’t that a shame.”

“Tch.” I really didn’t like his smirk.

I let Rho Aias fade away and reached for Kanshou and Bakuya.

Gin flash stepped away again but this time I was ready for him. I followed with Haste and reappeared crouched in front of him, swords already coming for an uppercut from below. Gin blocked them before they could slice into his stomach but failed to deflect them from nicking into his shoulder when he misjudged my strength. To his credit, the light wound barely got a wince from him and I needed to bend over backwards to avoid getting stabbed in the face in retaliation.

I somersaulted away from Gin and threw my blades at him, immediately tracing another pair and throwing those. As Gin batted those four away from him I traced a third pair and dashed in close. The key to fighting this battle was going to be keeping the ex-captain so busy fending off attacks that he couldn’t snipe at me with his bankai from a distance. The thrown swords circled around from behind, their nature to return to each other prevented them from simply flying off into the distance and making them basically boomerang swords played to my advantage. Anytime Gin tried to line up his sword for a stab I would disrupt the motion by throwing a blade in my hand and catching one of the ones buzzing around us. And if I happened to miss? Well it was simple enough to dissipate that particular blade and trace another one.

That wasn't to say Gin was making any of that easy. I was dodging supersonic stab wounds by the barest margin possible. The more we fought the more my outfit acquired tears and cuts and I was bleeding from a few places where I had managed to dodge the initial stab but Gin was able to move his blade to hit me immediately after. I was distracted by a particularly close miss that ended up shearing off a few loose strands of hair rather than stabbing me through the eye but it was enough for Gin to gain a second of reprieve.

He pointed a hand straight down at his feet and a red sphere of energy quickly formed.

“Shakkaho!”

I cursed as the shockwave blew me back and I lost Gin in the resulting smoke. I was forced to dismiss the flying copies of Kanshou and Bakuya when they burst through the smoke cloud and hit nothing.

“Well now, you certainly are much stronger than the last time we fought.” I snapped to see Gin standing on a pile of rubble. “In fact you clearly managed to get stronger than the kid over there.” He said pointing at a gobsmacked Ichigo who was still standing around here for some reason.

Go help someone if you weren’t going to fight!

“I think you're mistaken.” I said as I traced my bow and strung an arrow. “I’ve always been stronger than him.”

“Oh, that so?” Gin gave Ichigo a searching look before making an expression like he had come to a decision. “Well in that case why don’t ya just run off.” He told Ichigo.

What?

“What?” My thoughts were echoed by Ichigo.

“Sure, why not? He’s not exactly obligated to be here. He isn’t a soldier or a Shinigami. He’s not a Hollow.”

Gin opened a single eye with a cruel glint.

“He’s not really human either.”

Every word seemed to be crushing Ichigo’s spirit but I couldn’t figure out why Gin was doing this.

“So why not just let him go? I mean, I have no interest in him and Lord Aizen might be a little disappointed but it’d be no fun if the kid is too scared to put up a fight. Besides-” *BOOOM!* There was a massive explosion behind the two of us. I risked turning my back on Gin to see Aizen walking calmly towards us. “-the time for games is over.”

Damn it, he was here too early! What were the others doing!?

“Oh? You look surprised, Alexandria Cross. Were you expecting the others to hold out longer?” Aizen said conversationally. “Unfortunately for you, they failed to be a challenge after a while.”

Some of the dust settled down to reveal the battered forms of Urahara, Yoruichi, and Isshin. All of them unconscious and scattered among the rubble. At the sight of them, whatever spine Ichigo had been holding onto snapped and he collapsed to his knees. Clearly I was on my own for this.

Facing off against Aizen and Gin alone with a hindrance in the background. How nostalgic.

I was out of time. Guess I would just need to risk it.

I drew back the arrow I had and shot it at Gin, I didn’t bother waiting to see if it did anything. He was either going to be distracted or I would suddenly get a sword through the back but that wasn’t important at the moment. I discarded my bow as I charged Aizen and a long Katana with a purple hilt replaced it.

“Ah, that’s right...you never managed to use that attack the last time we saw each other.” Aizen said. “Very well. Let’s see if-” ”Hiken: Tsubame Gaeshi!”

Three attacks. Three blades. All in a single moment.

Both of Aizen’s arms and his right leg detached from his body, yet Aizen didn’t seem to be in pain or even very concerned about this. No matter. I still had one more thing to do before he retaliated.

Monohoshi Zao was discarded just like my bow and I pulled a simple metal rod from it’s holster on my belt. The proto-device had been repaired since the Soul Society invasion and was ready for use. I pointed the end of it at Aizen and poured mana into the device. A brilliant yellow spell-circle formed in his face. I was still getting a handle on this type of magic but hopefully it would be enough for this.

”Nova Blast!”

A beam of magic enveloped Aizen’s upper body as I fired the spell. I kept it up as long as I could but this spell wasn’t designed to be sustained for long. Eventually it sputtered out. To my surprise the Aizen I faced in front of me was different than the one I shot at. His face was no longer covered by the white mask but had been torn off by my attack. His face was largely the same as pre-transformation him, even if his eyes were now white with purple sclera. The only other thing to change was the significantly longer hair flowing down his back.

“So deep down you just wished for long hair?” I couldn’t help but comment.

Aizen gave me a small amused smile...then backhanded me through a building.

“Okay, ow.” I pulled myself out of the rubble and wiped a hand over my face. No blood, but it still stung like a bitch.

Neither Aizen or Gin followed after me so they must have stayed by Ichigo. I would’ve preferred if they had split up. No use in wishing for ‘ifs’ though.

I used Haste to get back to where Aizen, Gin, and Ichigo were and was surprised to only see Ichigo and Isshin instead. Isshin had collapsed next to Ichigo with an arm thrown over his shoulder but there was no sign of anyone else. Where had the other two gone?

“Where’s Aizen?”

“Gone. He left for Soul Society already. Looks like we were wrong about him staying to finish any opponents before moving on. Did you manage to do it?” Isshin said.

I nodded. “Yeah, almost didn’t because Aizen showed up early but I pulled it off.”

“Sorry ‘bout that.”

“It’s fine. You both ready?”

“Let’s go.” Isshin declared. “We will protect Karakura.”