silenc.

The whole situation was so infuriating that he couldn't help but seethe. It wasn't a power issue; the level four had about the strength of a lower-level Espada, and Ichigo outclassed it by far. But because it was a goddamn akuma, it couldn't be harmed by anything except Innocence. Of all the powers for Ichigo to not develop, did it really have to be this one?

Back in the lab, Allen's reiatsu flared, and Ichigo turned his head, frowning. He'd dragged the level four out of the wrecked lab to get it away from Allen's motionless body, but that flare usually meant that an exorcist was using their Innocence, which meant Allen was up and getting ready to fight, which... didn't make sense. Ichigo had only given himself a few seconds to check, but he was certain that Allen's back was broken. And none of the exorcists had shown any ability to regenerate, so-

Ichigo's moment of distraction cost him, and one of the akuma's wiry arms slipped free to punch him hard on the chin. Ichigo grunted as his head snapped back, and nearly lost his grip on the rest of it when it renewed its thrashing.

"AAAAAA!" the akuma shrieked in rage - an even worse attack at close range. Ichigo buckled, and the akuma slipped free, making a mad dash for the elevator shaft. Ichigo swore and chased after it, quickly catching it around the waist, and it wailed again, clawing at the air. "NOOO! I HAVE TO KILL!"

"You're not killing shit," Ichigo snapped, cranky and sore. He'd never wished so badly that he could actually perform kido; even a simple bakudo to bind its arms would make his job way easier right now. Instead, he had to shuffle it around until he could physically restrain its arms to its sides again, bend it over under his arm so it couldn't bite him, and wrap his leg around its so it couldn't get leverage. It was ridiculous, and it probably looked like it too.

"MONSTER!" the akuma shrieked, which was pretty rich of it, given the writhing mass of melted souls attached to its back. It struggled futilely against his iron grip. "I AM A WEAPON OF MASSACRE! KILLING IS MY REASON FOR EXISTENCE!"

Then, as if to prove that things could always get worse here, Allen reached the chamber and Ichigo got a good look at how he'd picked himself up.

Ransotengai, he thought, as soon as he laid eyes on the younger boy.

It wasn't the Quincy technique, obviously, but it used the same principle; Ichigo could see from here that Allen had wrapped ribbons of his cloak-type Innocence around his limbs to move his body, with even more of them wrapped tightly around his torso and hips to stabilize his injuries. His silver mask was slotted over his face, keeping his head and neck straight, which Ichigo hoped also meant it was protecting his spine. Even his hand was supported by his Innocence, ribbons wrapped around it to keep it closed around the hilt of his sword.

Everything in Ichigo wanted to smack Allen upside the head for being a reckless, self-sacrificing idiot and tell him to lay back down and wait for someone to come get him. Unfortunately, this wasn't that kind of day.

Today, they were dealing with something Ichigo literally couldn't handle by himself, and there were hundreds if not thousands of people counting on them. Like a dozen centuries-old shinigami leaning on a fifteen-year-old human to put down Aizen, Ichigo needed Allen right now, and he was already furious at himself for it.

Ichigo used shunpo to drag the akuma over to Allen, and slammed it at his feet, pinning its arms back so its head was as exposed as possible, stuck out from the rest of it without Ichigo in the way. It screamed and struggled, of course, but with Ichigo shoving it into the solid stone, it was helpless.

"Head," he gritted out. It wouldn't do much for Allen's pride, but they didn't exactly have time for luxuries like that.

Luckily, Allen didn't complain. Instead, silently, he lifted his sword over his head, paused for a beat, and then brought it down, slashing straight toward the akuma's neck. Before the blow could land, the akuma shrieked again - the one thing Ichigo couldn't stop it from doing - and Allen choked, crumpling to his knees. Then he coughed up blood.

Ichigo ended the attack by slamming the thing's head into the ground, then swore furiously under his breath. Everything about this situation was godawful: the helplessness, the stakes, the fact that everything rested on the shoulders of a handful of people more vulnerable than half of Ichigo's human friends.

He shuffled around until he could flip it onto its back and pin both its arms with one hand, keeping its legs down with his own and its chest with his elbow. With his freed hand, he forced the thing's jaw shut.

"Head," he repeated gruffly.

Without a word, Allen forced himself to his feet, swaying drunkenly, lifted his sword again, and this time successfully brought it down on the akuma's exposed head. The akuma attempted to scream, but couldn't through its clenched jaw, so instead its eyes bugged as Allen's Innocence cut a deep slash across its face. When that didn't do it, Allen brought it back up, and slashed toward it.

One of the akuma's hands slipped out of Ichigo's grip, and it slammed an akuma-cero into Ichigo's stomach. Ichigo wheezed on impact, lost his grip, and the damn thing struggled free and immediately launched itself at Allen.

Ichigo bitterly hoped it went to Hell when it died.

"INNOCENCE!" it shrieked, bowling Allen over. Allen, already critically injured, went down without resistance, skidding half a dozen yards before he hit a wall and stopped, and then didn't get up again. Ichigo lunged forward and grappled it again, and it clawed at his arms, digging red furrows into the skin. Oil streamed down its face from the ugly wound. "AAAAAAH! I HATE INNOCENCE! I HATE IT!"

Ichigo couldn't care less about that if he tried. He watched Allen drag himself to his feet with the Innocence ribbons, hold out his arm, and summon his sword to his hand, breathing hard.

"Ready," Allen rasped, holding his sword in front of him in the sloppiest stance Ichigo had ever seen. That was about when Ichigo realized that Allen's eyes were open, and by extension, that they hadn't been a minute ago. Allen's Innocence hadn't just moved his body for him; it had been the only one awake.

No time to dwell on that now. He didn't seem too disoriented at waking up already in battle, so presumably it had still been driven by his intent, and he was awake and fighting now. No matter how injured Allen was, he was the only one who could actually harm the akuma until either Lenalee synchronized or one of the other exorcists dug themselves out of the wreckage. They had no choice.

Ichigo just had to keep reminding himself of that until he stopped wanting to tell Allen to sit down.

"Watch for an opening," Ichigo told him.

This would be infinitely easier if Allen's doesn't-hurt-humans sword wouldn't hurt Ichigo either, but they'd all agreed that it probably wouldn't do anything good to his hollow. Allen nodded tightly, and Ichigo leapt up, twisted, and hit the thing hard enough to both stun it and send it flying toward the ground. Allen jumped up after him, and as the akuma came flying down, swung the sword like a baseball bat, and cut another deep slash into the monster, earning another cry of rage and pain. It swung at Allen, and Ichigo shot toward it before the blow could land, stopping it in its tracks.

Off to the side, Lenalee finally reached the chamber, along with Leverrier and Lavi. They went right for Hevlaska, who crept up out of her den just enough to speak to them, low and urgent. Ichigo kept half an eye on them, the rest of his attention firmly on Allen and the akuma.

With Allen awake and at least somewhat capable of moving around, it became less practical to physically wrestle with the akuma. Ichigo switched tactics, merely grabbing the akuma by its limbs or its stupid halo and flinging it in Allen's general direction. Allen would lunge toward it and swing, and cut another deep, fracturing slash into its body. If it gathered itself enough to counterattack, Ichigo shunpoed toward them and stopped it before it could connect.

It wasn't perfect. Allen missed the akuma as often as he hit it, and his legs trembled from the effort it took for him to remain upright. Twice - twice! - the akuma reacted fast enough to land a blow as Allen slashed at it and before Ichigo could stop it, knocking him off his feet and making him cough up more blood. But his focus was unwavering, his expression remaining fierce and intent, and every swing of his sword had strength behind it. The blows that landed cut deep. Every time he went down, he got up.

"Sorry," Allen gasped out after the second time, his face gray with pain as he staggered to his feet, swaying more than a little as his Innocence forced him to stay upright. He looked like he was about to either throw up or pass out. Instead, he summoned his sword back to his hand and braced, settling his gaze on the akuma. His reiatsu thrummed with intent.

Ichigo gritted his teeth, furious with himself and the situation. Zangetsu had already warned him taking up Allen's sword wouldn't work; soul-bond weapons required that resonance to work, and it would have no power in his hands. "Shut up and stay there until I throw the akuma at you."

Out of the corner of his eye, Ichigo could see Hevlaska lifting Lenalee up and pressing the Innocence into her chest.

The first attempt failed, and Ichigo cursed under his breath. The second attempt failed too, and Komui, who'd reached the basement level in the meantime, stopped Hevlaska from trying a third. Ichigo turned his full attention on the akuma. He could feel Cross approaching anyway - apparently he'd decided to break through the wall rather than trying to climb out of the rubble.

A couple of minutes later, he felt Lenalee's reiatsu die down for a split second, and then flare, bright and clear; exorcist reiatsu was the sharpest Ichigo had ever felt, save for maybe some of the more experienced captains when they got truly serious.

Seconds later, Lenalee rocketed towards them, fierce and furious, and Ichigo got his first look at her Innocence: a pair of boots that let her fly and kick with enough force to rip through metal. Her first blow on the akuma crushed in its stomach, the sharp heel digging in and leaving a deep hole when she kicked off from it.

Ichigo gave her a feral grin. "Right on time."

"Running late," she disagreed, then turned her attention on the akuma. It shot toward them with a scream.

With Lenalee on the playing field, things eased up a little. Her speed was impressive, especially by human standards, and they were able to kick the wailing akuma back and forth like a demented tennis match. Below, Allen slumped against the wall, clutching at his side where the akuma had caved in some of his ribs.

By now, the akuma was starting to look pretty rough. It had dents and crush-slash marks all over its body, and one of its forearms was barely hanging on by a thread. Its wings were bent and twisted. It trembled whenever it hovered, which didn't happen much, since that meant giving it room to breathe. But it didn't look afraid or hurt. It only became even more enraged.

The next time Lenalee kicked it, it latched onto her ankle.

"MY ONLY PURPOSE IS TO KILL!" it screamed, reaching up with the other hand to try and claw its way up her boot and onto skin. "I CANNOT DISAPPOINT THE EARL!"

"LET GO!" Lenalee shouted back. She kicked it in the face with her other boot and slipped free from its grip without Ichigo's help, and he shunpoed forward to grab it by the wrist.

"Hey Allen! Head!" he called out, and flung the thing straight down again.

Thankfully, Allen understood what he meant without any trouble. He hauled himself upright and grabbed his sword, and as soon as the akuma smashed into the ground in front of him, he stabbed the broad, nearly flat tip into its neck and shoved, trying to behead it while it wailed. Ichigo shunpoed down to add his strength, and a moment later, Lenalee slammed into the pommel, forcing it even deeper.

With all three of them putting their backs into it, the akuma's head popped off and rolled away, still screaming about its failures. Another hard stomp from Lenalee put an end to that, and then it was over.

Like with any major battle, it took a few seconds to register that it had ended. For a minute, all of them were silent, breathing hard and waiting to see if the akuma would reform. Instead, its body began to deflate, dissolving slowly into hyper-toxic corpse dust.

Ichigo broke the silence, lifting his head to meet Allen's eyes. "Can you make it to the infirmary?" he asked bluntly, without preamble. Allen looked like he was about to pass out, leaning heavily on his sword to remain upright, but he'd started the fight literally unconscious, so that didn't mean much.

"Yeah," Allen croaked without lifting his head. A moment later, he dissolved his sword, restoring his wickedly clawed left arm, and stumbled blindly in the general direction of the stairs. His awkward gait reminded Ichigo how he was moving around, and that it was almost certainly making his injuries worse.

"Fuck that," he said out loud, and stepped forward, leaned down, and swept Allen off his feet, earning a loud yelp. He settled Allen into a bridal carry and took off at a brisk walk toward the stairs up to the walkway. Lenalee was right behind him, all of her attention on Allen now that the battle was over. Behind them, Cross broke out of the wall and dropped to the ground, grumbling.

"Ah!" Allen gasped, stiff and twitching slightly in Ichigo's arms. His expression was scrunched in pain, but he still tipped his head to meet Ichigo's eyes. "Ichigo, wait, I can-"

"You can deactivate your Innocence and stop dragging your body around like a puppet," Ichigo cut him off without looking, still furious about how everything had happened. "It's fine. You weigh basically nothing. Now stop trying to move or I'll knock you out myself."

There was a moment of silence, and then, with a soft sound somewhere between a sigh and a whimper, Allen deactivated his Innocence and slumped into Ichigo, breathing hard and shallow. His left hand came up to protect his injured ribs, and his reiatsu dropped to a normal, nearly human level. Ichigo wasn't surprised; resolve alone could only keep your body going for so long, and Allen had just about burnt through his fumes.

"What happened to Allen?" Lenalee asked anxiously, keeping up without any obvious trouble. She was a little unsteady on her feet, and smelled faintly of blood, but most of her attention was on Allen as well.

"He got thrown into a wall at the start of the fight," Ichigo explained shortly, climbing the stairs as quickly as he could without jostling the kid in his arms. "If there'd been any other options, he wouldn't have gotten up again until someone came to carry him out on a stretcher."

"I'm okay," Allen mumbled, without opening his eyes. "Sh'ld check on 'veryone else... Sc'nce Department..." He coughed, fresh blood trickling from the corner of his mouth to join the tacky smear already there. His chest heaved.

Lenalee hissed softly and glanced up to meet Ichigo's eyes. 

Ichigo gave her a nod, and she darted away, passing the humans who had for some reason decided to stay and shooting up the elevator shaft on her own. A few seconds later, Ichigo caught up, met Komui's eyes, and jerked his head toward the elevator without pausing.

"Holy shit, what's wrong with Allen?" Lavi blurted out, falling in just close enough to get in Ichigo's space without getting in his way. Ichigo elbowed him off anyway. The end of the fight hadn't settled his nerves any.

"His back is broken," Ichigo answered, stopping on the elevator. Komui, Lavi, and Leverrier stepped on after him, the former two hovering worriedly while Leverrier kept his distance, eyes narrow. "Some of his ribs too, and fuck knows what else at this point. He needs the infirmary - maybe an operating room if you have one." Was 1897 too early for an X-ray machine? Almost certainly, but magic had shaken up the timeline a little and he'd been surprised by some of the tech this place had access to.

"I'm fine," Allen mumbled. It sounded even weaker this time, and he didn't say anything else. He was getting worse. Ichigo could see blood soaking through his shirt, too - from under his hand, so one of his ribs might have ripped through the skin.

He pinched Allen on the side. Allen winced and opened his eyes, squinting at Ichigo. "Hey. Stay awake, you hit your head back there. You might have a concussion."

"Okay..." Allen's reiatsu rose slightly as he focused.

"I'll let them know to get ready for him," Komui promised, directing the elevator up. Immediately afterward, he grabbed his golem and started speaking, quick and sharp, first speaking to the medical staff, then a team that had been waiting for the all-clear to start excavating the trapped survivors. Good.

"His performance was weak," Leverrier criticized, like he thought he had the right. Ichigo looked up sharply to glare at him. "Kurosaki did the overwhelming majority of the work for that fight, despite the presence of two exorcists." There was clear contempt in his voice, which was pretty fucking cheeky for a guy who'd stood off to the side and watched for the whole fight.

Ichigo had half a mind to throw Leverrier off the edge of the Order's weird steampunk elevator. "When you get up and fight with a broken back, then someone might care about your opinion. Until then, step the hell back. Allen and Lenalee almost died protecting this place."

"But not you." Leverrier's gaze was contemplative.

Well, no. Ichigo was pretty much never going to die during that fight, unless he did something exceptionally stupid, and maybe not even then depending on how his body responded to the akuma virus. (He intended to never find out.)

"That's not the point," Ichigo said instead, holding his gaze defiantly. "Both of them put their lives on the line today. I just helped."

And while he was glad that he could, at least, help, it still grated. Ichigo hadn't felt this way about a fight in a long time. He was just one guy, and the power gap between the Black Order and the Noah was so massive that it felt sadistic, like if he and his friends had been ordinary humans when they invaded Seireitei. Could he close that gap by himself, and protect them long enough for them to protect their world?