BLEACH: The Mourning Shinigami

"Harumph!!" Jidanbō had a bit of difficulty as he tried to force his ax down on Mei's sword but it didn't budge one bit causing him to sweat profusely. "Ugh.... Hmph...."

"Hoh.... Hohohohohoho!!!" He suddenly laughed loudly, making Mei and the people standing outside the barrier confused and shocked. Jidanbō lifted his ax and stopped applying pressure, causing Mei's tense arm to slowly relax. "You're not bad!! Good! It's been decades since anybody blocked my ax!!"

"All right, then.... Today.... I won't hold back!!" Jidanbō smiled and looked down, now he was willing to look at her as someone with equal strength to him and no longer had that arrogant attitude. He raised his ax high in preparation for his next attack. "Goodluck, lil'lady. You're only the third person that ever blocked my first swing.... But nobody's ever stopped...."

"My second move!!!" Having said that, he continued to swing his ax down without any mercy. "RAAAAAAH!!!"

KAATHOOOOM!!

"Ha! Good! You're still standing!!" When he saw that Mei was still able to block his attack, Jidanbō continuously swung his ax like crazy at Mei. "But there's more!! Take this!!"

"Juppon Jidanda Matsuri!!!"

WHAM!

"One!"

WHAM! 

"Two!"

WHAM! 

"Three!"

WHAM! 

"Four!"

WHAM! 

"Five!"

WHAM! 

"Six!"

WHAM! 

Every time he counted the number, he would swing his ax down at Mei and then he gradually miscounted but continued to attack with terrible force even after more than ten ax swings. He finally brought the ax up and swung the killing blow down.

"Time to finish up...."

"Ten!!!"

SHRUKKK!

SKREEEEEEK!!

Jidanbō's eyes widened as he saw a red lightning slash across his ax until it extended all the way to the White Road Gate and even grazed his face.

"Wh.... Wha..."

Something flew far away and cut through the entire barrier that Jidanbō had set up earlier, causing large rocks to fly out and just barely hit Ichigo's group members. A slash so sharp that it made everyone freeze in place when they saw Mei standing in her signature sideways pose and slowly sheathing her sword.

"Wh... Why.... You... How come you're still standing?"

"...A warrior should not ask another warrior's secrets." Mei replied and she took a step back in a position ready to respond to the attack even though she still didn't put her hand on the hilt of her sword at all. "Do your worst."

"I-I have another move!!" Jidanbō was alarmed to see that Mei was actually more serious this time, the air around her cracking with her red Reiatsu and ominous red energy emitting from her sword. Mei just pushed the sword handle up a bit to reveal a small part of the red blade that was emitting a faint red light.

"Here goes!! My final move...."He quickly took out another ax from his shirt and spun them around, then continued to raise the two axes to perform his final attack.

"Banzai Jidanda Matsuri!!"

"You could probably make a new pair of axes, right?" In a split second she had drawn her sword and unleashed eight lightning-like slashes so fast that an illusion appeared behind her and when she sheathed her sword with a click, her two axes Jidanbō was shattered into small pieces. Leaving only the two axe-hands lying in Jidanbō's palms, his hands also appeared to have wounds from Mei's slashes infected with the energy of her sword.

"Wh... What?" Jidanbō fell backwards to the ground, still in shock from these scenes.

"Wh-what did Mei do?" Ishida asked curiously even though he was still in awe of Mei's power.

"That huge.... She.... She just knocked him out!?"

THUD!

THOOOM!

"Whoaa!! Th-that could've been sad! I can't believe I slipped and fell on my butt!" Jidanbō quickly jumped up after being defeated by Mei and looked unusually happy. Certainly not the tall and arrogant guy that Mei defeated just now, she was still so shocked that she still had a blank face. "Huh!? What's that look!? Oh, you thought I was out, didn't you!? Haha! You don't know much if you think you can know me out!!"

"That's why I hate hicks! They're ignorant! Just wait, one more whack with my ax...." Jidanbō was excited and then turned to confusion when he saw that both of his ax blades were gone, leaving him silent for a long time. Only then did his brain finish loading the incident so he continued to be dazed and stammering continuously like a child who lost his toy. "My ax!? Both my axes!? My axes are.... My..."

"My axes!!" Mei didn't really expect him to CRY! Making her jaw drop, she was also confused and didn't know how to react to this situation. Jidanbō fell face down on the ground and cried loudly like a big child, as he continuously whine and wailed for his two axes. "Broken! They're broken! My axes.... are broken!!!"

"Uh.... Anou.... Um.... I'm sorry...? I guess I didn't have to break both of them...." Mei felt a little bit... Is it guilt or pity? She bent down and patted Jidanbō's shoulder to comfort him a bit, even though she was the one who broke his ax.

"You!! Aww..... You're such a nice lady!! You and I are enemies.... But you still feel sorry for me...." Jidanbō sobbed continuously, as his tears continued to fall, including his snot. He raised his big hand and patted Mei's head. "Big!! You've got a great big heart!! And look at me.... Crying over a couple of broken axes. How can I call myself a man!!"

"Hm?" Jidanbō then muttered something that Mei couldn't hear clearly, causing her to tilt her head and look at him with a puzzled expression.

"Utter defeat!! As a warrior--And as a man-- I've been utterly defeated by you!!!" Jidanbō raised his hands and spoke loudly for Mei to hear. He used his hand to wipe his tear-streaked and snot-stained face while still sniffling a bit. "Three hundred years I've been the gatekeeper of the White Road Gate. I never lost before. You're the first lady to beat me."

"You can pass! Jidanbō authorizes you to pass through the White Road Gate!!"

"Mmhm....."

"Can.... Can we pass through too?" Orihime shyly asked Jidanbō.

"What? Mei!? Our leader!? Are you kidding!?" Ichigo and Ishida exclaimed in displeasure and pointed towards Mei, who was still leisurely taking a peach out of her long furisode sleeve and chewing on it. She tilted her head innocently when two people were dissatisfied with her.

"Mei.... Is that your name?"

"Raiden Bosenmori Mei.... Merely a name belonging to someone. You know my nature, remember my deeds..." Mei smiled briefly. "Thus, call me Mei."

"Mei, huh? What a cute little name for a cool lady like you...." Jidanbō said making Mei's expression darken, she cleared her throat signaling him to return to the main topic. "Be careful.... I don't know why you guys want to pass through this gate, but.... There's a bunch of mean guys in here!"

"Yeah, we know." Ichigo crossed his arms and answered with a determined face.

"All right.... Well.... As long as you know." Jidanbō was silent for a long moment before he continued speaking. He walked up to the giant gate and slid his hand down the gap. "Here. Step back and I'll open the gate."

"Don't be scared. It looks harder than it is." He used all his strength to start lifting the gate. It began to shake and was slowly lifted up by Jidanbō's pure strength, surprising everyone with his strength. "GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"

"WHOAA!!!"

"Wow...."

"He lifted it...."

"What's wrong? Why'd you stop? Something happen?" Ichigo saw Jidanbō stop halfway and he opened his eyes wide, trembling without saying a word before Ichigo asked him. Ichigo and Mei tilted their heads to look inside the gate and saw only a tall, thin young man standing on the other side seems like he is waiting for them.

He wears a Shinigami uniform similar to what Ichigo is wearing, but he wears a white haori over it, and he carries a sword at his hip. He kept his eyes constantly narrowed to slits and had a wide mocking smile on his face, making Mei frown because it was the first time they met and they already had no sympathy. Are all the Soul Reapers in Soul Society this unlikable? "Who the heck's that?"

"Captain of the 3rd Division.... Gin Ichimaru." Jidanbō was sweating profusely and stuttering nervously, he seemed to stiffen under the pressure of the other person's Reiatsu.

"Uh-oh.... This won't do." He spoke with sarcasm and mocking politeness as he considered the situation. In less than a blink of an eye, he took out his sword and severed Jidanbō's left arm. When they were startled again, he had already sheathed his sword. He was quite an agile man.

THOMP!

"Won't do at all.... A gatekeeper ain't supposed to open gates."

SHOOOOM!!

THWUMP!!

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" Jidanbō's giant left arm flew away when Gin cut it off and it fell on top of some unfortunate house. The blood from the slash continued to spurt out in endless waves, making Jidanbō pant and tremble as he still tried to lift the gate with one hand. Jidanbō screamed miserably as he began to feel the pain from the slash.

"Wha.... What was that!? What did that guy do!?" The gate fell quickly, but fortunately Jidanbō was able to catch it with his shoulders and whole body to prevent it from falling further. He continued to breathe heavily.

"Godly, you can hold that gate up with just one arm. You sure are the Soul Society's strongest giant." Gin kept that smile and spoke in a mocking voice. "But as a gatekeeper.... You're a failure."

"I lost.... the obvious thing to do.... was to open the gate for the victor!!" Jidanbō trembled in response to Gin even though he was still very scared.

"What're you talking about? Didn't anybody tell you? A gatekeeper that loses can't open gates." Gin spoke in a scary and threatening voice to Jidanbō, causing him to turn pale. " 'Cause a gatekeeper that loses.... Dies."

KLANK!!

"What did you say?" Mei suddenly appeared behind Gin and stealthily attacked him, she swung her sword still in its sheath down intending to knock him unconscious but he quickly used his Zanpakutō to stop. "Why don't you talk some sense?"

"Looks like you're using a Zanpakutō that's too big for your brain ma'am."

Clack!

"I'm not the only foolish one have a giant sword."

Mei quickly retracted her sword and sheathed it with a slightly sarcastic expression while she raised an eyebrow. Jumping back to keep a certain distance made Gin confused, as he was about to continue attacking Mei, he was startled and immediately retracted his sword to defend against the attack from above coming from the orange-haired boy.

KLANNK! CHANNG!!

SQWOOSH!

Ichigo backed away after he launched his attack and swung his sword backhand just like Mei. He then looked at Mei like a child then looked down at the way he held his sword.

"How did you swing like that!?" said Ichigo, he even poked Mei's arm to get her attention. But Mei just shot him a questioning look that made him blink for a long moment to confirm what that look meant before turning his main attention to Gin.

"Right... Hey, jerkface, what the heck are you doing!!?" said Ichigo with a dumb face look at Gin, who had been silently watching and holding his sword in defense all this time. "The fight between Jidanbō and Mei was over! If you shove your nose into our business, you'll lose it!"

"C'mon... If you wanna fight somebody, fight us. Only coward would butcher a defenseless giant." Ichigo said aggressively as he clenched the hilt of his sword in his palm as his concentration and determination to win gathered in one place in his mind. "I'll cut you up."

"Ha! You're a funny kid. Aren't you scared of me just a little bit?" Gin smirks a little and lowers his defense.

"Not at-..."

"Stop playing around both you too Ichigo and Acheron!! We must retreat for now!!" The black cat climbed onto Mei's head and nibbled on her hair as it tried to stop Ichigo and Mei. Mei stood nodding and crossed her arms as her eyes glanced over at Gin who was analyzing her with a curious look on his face.

"Ichigo? And Acheron....?" Gin observed Mei carefully from head to toe as he memorized every detail about this strange woman. From looking down at the sword in Mei's left hand to the amount of Reiatsu radiating from it. "Dark purple hair, tall with an ōdachi sword...."

"Her Reiryoku is probably more than a Vice-Captain, no more than a Captain. Is she compressing her Reiryoku into her sword? Why haven't I heard about her from the reports? She's definitely more dangerous than that brat Ichigo. Then...."

"Ichigo Kurosaki.... And pardon me, I still don't know about the lady standing next to you.... Yet...." Gin turned around and slowly stepped away from the range of his sword, successfully attracting Mei's attention once again. She reflexively placed her hand on the hilt of her sword as her opponent was about to pull some kind of trick.

"And yet you know who I am?" Ichigo asked curiously.

"Yep.... Just as i figured. All the more reason....not to let you guys pass."Gin walked further and further until he felt it was okay then he stopped, turned around to pointed his sword towards Mei and Ichigo.

"Why are you moving so far away? You gonna throw that sword or something?" Ichigo grumbled as he saw his opponent keeping such a large distance that he found it hard to believe he would be able to attack with that short sword.

"It's not just a short sword. This is my.... Zanpakutō" Gin said with a terrifying and sinister expression as he took a step back and prepared to attack without thinking. The overwhelming power of his Reiatsu overwhelmed Ichigo and made him freeze in fear out of primal instinct as everything happened so fast. "Skewer those brats.... Shinsō"

THUD!! FWOOOSH!!

Before Ichigo realized the situation, someone kicked him with an extremely strong force in his stomach sending him flying out of the castle gate towards Ishida's group, he caught a glimpse of purple hair standing in front of him.

KLAANG!

WHAAAAAM!!

There was a loud sound of swords clashing and someone being thrown out, heading straight towards Ichigo, luckily he dodged in time at the most critical moment without being crushed to death by Jidanbō. Gin's blade quickly retracted at a rapid speed while everyone was still shocked and terrified under Gin's merciless attack.

"Acheron!!" Yoruichi, the black cat, meowed as they saw Mei fall through several walls of the house and was buried under a pile of rubble. "The gate's coming down!!!"

At the same time, the gate, now without anyone to hold it up, fell from above and landed with a loud bang, once again blocking the entire path of Ichigo's team. Before the gate closed completely, Gin bid them farewell in the most sarcastic and mocking way possible.

"Bye♥"

SHOOOOOOOOOO.... THOOOM!