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What I had thought to be rock was actually bone under my feet, brittle and cracking with my weight as I sprinted behind Yoruichi. Arms pumping, legs burning, I tried not to focus on the white walls crumbling and collapsing inwards behind us.

"Don't look back – run! If the koryu swallows us, we're done for!" Yoruichi shouted over the rumbling.

"Aaah!" cried Uryu and I risked a glance behind. His cape had been caught by the white waterfall of wall.

"Uryu!" I screamed, slowing slightly. Heart in throat, I became to call forth my weapon.

"Idiot! It's that stupid costume you're wearing!" Ichigo cried in frustration, reaching for his zanpakuto.

"Kera, Ichigo, don't use your weapons! The koryu entangles all spiritual entities! If you swing your swords, you'll all be swallowed!"

"What do we do then?" I said.

Suddenly, a large hand grabbed Uryu's cape and ripped it off him. Chad then picked Uryu up and slung him over the shoulder, taking off again. Crisis averted, I chased after them again.

"Put me down, Chad! I can run on my own!" Uyru protested. "Put me-" His voice cut off.

"What's that noise?" I commented as the rumbling shifting to a higher pitch. All the hair on my neck stood on end. "Guys, I have a really bad feeling."

"Something's coming!" Uryu confirmed that feeling.

A beam of light past harmlessly over our heads, like the headlight of a car, and I looked behind again. The thing barrelling down on us was anything but harmless.

"It's a kotosu- a cleaner! It appears once every seven days... but why now?!" Yoruichi explained.

"Who cares what the hell it is?!" I screeched, pushing past Yoruichi, moving faster than I had ever done. My heart threatened to leap from my chest. "Just run!"

The square of light before us grew larger and larger. The exit. Instead of a sigh of relief, I sucked all my breath in, afraid to release it with the kotosu bearing down on us. We would make it. We would. We had to!

"It's catching up!"

"No, Orihime, don't!" I screamed at her as she spun and put her hands to the flower clips in her hair.

"Hinagiku! Baigon! Lily! Santen Kesshun!" Three flying objects zipped into the sky and Orihime held a hand out to the kototsu. "I reject!" An orange triangular shield came to life before the cleaner.

It crashed into it and there was a split second before the shield exploded. I shot like a firework out through the entrance to the soul society, hitting the ground hard, and all the air was crushed from my lungs when someone landed on me.

Groaning, I shoved Uryu off me and he flopped to the ground. A splitting headache was forming as I sat up and surveyed our surroundings. The orange shield was underneath us and the only person who didn't look like they were recovering from a thousand foot fall was Orihime.

Suddenly dizzy, I lay back down. Black spots in my vision, I sucked in lungful after lungful of air. The adrenaline was wearing off and a blanket of fatigue settled over me. Then my stomach heaved. I clamped a hand over it and swallowed back the bile.

Think happy thoughts. Think happy thoughts.

Lactate induced nausea passing, I slowly sat up. Orihime was being assaulted by Yoruichi for calling her 'six little flowers'; Ichigo was trying to defend her actions. Chad and Uryu looked around curiously.

I got to my feet.

I was back in the soul society.

Before I knew it, I was laughing, arms thrown wide. "I'm back! I made it!" I danced around my friends, invigorated.

"Stop announcing our presence to everyone," Ichigo said to me and I turned on him with a growl.

"Don't ruin this moment."

He held his hands in surrender and backed away. As the dust began to clear, my eyes spotted the small, clean houses of the Seireitei in the distance. A grin graced my lips. Less than one hundred metres away stood my home.

At the moment, we stood in Rukongai, the poorer side of the soul society, thatched houses clumped together haphazardly. What confused me the most was the lack of people. Rukongai was normally a bustling town, on account of the freedom that the konpaku had away from the constraints of duties and killing Hollows.

"This is the soul society?" Ichigo questioned, looking around.

"Yes. This is the slum district commonly known as Rukongai, the drifting spirit town. It's where souls live when they first come to the soul society. It lies outside the walls of the Seireitei, where the soul reapers live," Yoruichi explained to the others. I moved closer to the Seireitei, confused. Why couldn't I see any soul reapers moving about?

"It's the poorest but freest part of the soul society. The majority of the konpaku live here."

"Really? It looks deserted," Uryu pointed out and Ichigo agreed.

Then he finally noticed what I was looking at. "Hey? The town looks totally different over there. I know, that's where the soul reapers live, right?"

"Ichigo, I wouldn't-" He breezed past me without even hearing me. A teensy detail suddenly rose to mind. "No, wait, you complete and utter baffoon! You can't just run up to it!"

"Don't get too close, you fool! You'll die!" Yoruichi yowled, chasing after the reckless red head.

Ichigo looked back, still running, just as the protective gates that surrounded the Seireitei descended from the sky and crashed into the earth. A fifty foot wall of solid white stone and a single gate towered over us and cut us off from the Seireitei.

"Ichigo! Are you okay?" Orihime called out as we all rushed over to the billowing dust cloud.

"It's been a while since anyone tried to crash the Seireimon – the spirit gate – without a permit," boomed an almighty voice.

The dust settled to reveal a mammoth man in Shinigami attire. He wore a weird little hat with red tassels, his sideburns appearing from underneath and running down until his chin, where the excess hair had been fashioned into fancy tufts. Armour plating covered from shoulder to hand of his left arm. The left side of his chest was left exposed by his uniform.

My eyes nearly popped out of my head. He. Was. HUGE! I'd never seen another Shinigami so large before. I mean, he was practically a giant! Which gave me serious concerns for who his mother was.

"At last, I have a customer. Welcome boy!" he addressed Ichigo, his voice like two boulders being grated together. He raised his right hand, which held a large axe, and swung it down until the hilt crashed into the ground beside Ichigo.

I shielded my face from the wave of dust that pulsed back at us.

The giant laughed quietly. "Now show me what you can do, boy."

"He's a giant! He can't be human!" Uryu exclaimed. "What is he?"

"His name is Jindanbo. He was chosen out of all the giants in the soul society for this job. This is the west gate - Great White Road Gate. And Jindanbo is its gate keeper," Yoruichi explained.

The memory of my untimely departure came back in a flash. The East Gate with a gaping, smouldering hole. Ikari and I the ones falsely accused. My heart ached at the thought of my beloved-

I shook my head. Now's not the time for that, I growled. There's an enemy stopping you from entering your home. Focus on that!

"Gate keeper? So we have to defeat him to get inside..." Uryu said.

"Yes. And it won't be easy. He's extremely strong. He can kill 30 Hollows with one swing of his axe. His strength is legendary. In the 300 years that he's been guarding this gate, no one has ever crashed it."

"How are we supposed to defeat something like that?" asked Uryu, looking worriedly at Jindanbo.

"Like you defeat any other enemy," I stated, rubbing my hands together as my heart thumped faster. "You beat them into a bloody pulp before they can do the same to you."

"We use our wits," Yoruichi said loudly, glaring at me. "We'll call Ichigo back and formulate a plan. Hey! Ichigo!"

While Yoruichi was trying to get Ichigo's attention, I was more so on the same wavelength as Chad and Orihime. We were already running towards the Gate.

"Orihime! Chad! Didn't you hear what I said? And Kera, you should know better! Come back here!"

"Sorry, cat, but you can't deny a Squad 11 member the chance to battle!" I shouted over my shoulder.

We charged over the opened ground and my hands itched to wrap around the hilt of my only weapon, Chiya's Dragon Heart sword, Dorangoháto. Jindanbo raised his axe.

I hit the brakes, raised my arms over my face. His axe cleaved the ground, the force behind it knocking me backwards. The earth broke and heaved upwards, jagged slabs blocking our path. And also trapped Ichigo inside. From what I could tell, Jindanbo had effectively created a battle ground and barrier with a single stroke.

Growling, I dusted myself off and cracked my knuckles. That overgrown ape was asking for it now.

"You people have bad manners. You must be from the country," Jindanbo's voice rang out, loud and clear over the barrier's walls. "Listen, cities have rules. Number one, wash your hands when you go inside. Two, don't eat things off the floor."

Jindando held up three fingers for us to see. "Three. Only two people to a duel."