Behind The Masks
Season 4
Chapter 1: Second Chances
My name is Chris Guruma, and this is the final chapter in the story that changed my life. It's also the shortest chapter I think. After we… killed… Milton and Charlie, the Hollow problems had practically disappeared. But there was still much to do, at least on my part.
As I sat on the soft grass of my back yard, I concentrated on life… and on my new Kidou spell. I built up as much reiatsu as possible, the ground around me cracking, and released it all into the Kidou spell.
"Bakudou no Zero, Sainen" (revival)
The energy released from my body, forming a circle of ice crystals around me, as an invisible force echoed through the winds. I became dizzy, falling backwards, out of breath. That was the most power draining Kidou I had performed… the revival Kidou, a spell of my own design. It was supposed to bring Milton and Charlie back to life, but so far nothing. I had almost lost hope; it had been over three months since I've been doing that Kidou, once every three days… but nothing seemed to happen.
Lahara walked out to the back yard with some iced-tea. She held my hand as I tried to catch my breath and even up the speed of my heartbeats.
"Still haven't managed?" she asked in a soft voice
"No… I'm starting to lose hope…" I answered
"Come in… get ready, Brian's initiation is today and you're gonna be late… even though you planned it yourself." she said
"Yeah… I bet he's already--gah!" I reacted, getting myself cut off; Lahara sighed loudly as well.
"You felt it too?" she asked
"Let's go!" I said picking up my Zanpaktou
Lahara tossed me Tennotsukai's cape, and we flew off. She called Brian and told him we might be late. Tennotsukai spoke to me.
"How can there be this much reiatsu concentrated in one place, even when Milton and Charles can't summon Hollows anymore."
"I don't know, but it can't be any good." I responded
We caught up with Mike on the way there.
"Dude, what's going on?" he asked
"We don't know, this took us by surprise." Lahara said
"But, wasn't it Milton and Charlie that were summoning the Hollows?" he asked
"They were, that's why there haven't been many Hollows in a while, but this now is just random." I said
"So what do we do?" he asked
"The same thing we always do." I said
"Kick some Hollow ass!" Lahara said… so hot
We reached the place quickly. It was the town square. Large Hollows were rampaging everywhere; there wasn't a human in sight. We crashed in and spread out to battle.
"Descend, Tennotsukai!"
"Spin, Tatsumakimaru!"
"Awaken, Arufa!"
I was just about to start slashing, when I Hollow came close to me and stared straight at me. I felt the power in his eyes, something I had never felt with any other Hollow; because those particular Hollows weren't like the other ones we had fought. There Hollow were… Adjuchas.
The Hollow laughed at me. I closed my eyes and sliced upwards. If he were any other Hollow he would have vanished, but I wasn't expecting that from an Adjuchas. I flew in and sliced like mad in every direction I could. I sent it against a wall. It directed itself towards me.
"Who… do you think you are?"
I began charging a cero on the tip of my index and middle fingers.
"Do you know what this is?" I asked
"Cero… how?" it asked
"I am one of the only two Shinigami I know capable of firing a Cero without the need of a Vizard mask… I am Chris Guruma, captain of the first squad… and you… you're nothing but left over scrap."
I fired the Cero right into its mask, creating a large smoke cloud. Now, he was gone. I wish it could have been the same with the other Adjuchas, but they were so many they began to overpower us; and I was too weak from casting Kidou to release my Bankai. I heard a scream; how dare those low lives hurt my princess! Their asses were mine!
I rushed over to Lahara, sending a few of the Hollows flying away. I picked her up from the ground, her arm was hurt.
"Are you okay?" I asked her
"Yea… it's just a scratch." she said
"We gotta fall back. There's too many of them"
Suddenly we heard a voice come from nearby.
"Do we have to keep saving your asses every time you get in trouble?"
Two voices followed that.
"DESGARRON!"
Two massive energy blasts in claw shape raked through the square. They literally deleted everything in their path, right through the center of the square, stopping on the building opposite of the square; but not before destroying part of it. A massive cloud of smoke and spirits particles was left behind. In between the smoke, two figures walked towards us.
B-side
The two figures walked forward enough to be seen. One of them had, medium length, extremely spiky black hair. His eyes were sharp, like those of a cat. He was wearing, very loose white pants, which seemed to fall down in strips, black boots with thin white lines resembling Japanese style sandals, and a white, short sleeve button shirt, which was opened revealing a small hole right under his well marked abdomen. The strangest part of him was what seemed to be half jaw bone, apparently being part of his left cheek.
The other one wore the same black boots, but also had white, long, wavy pants that almost dragged on the ground, a long sleeved button shirt, which fell back as a cape a little below his knees. With his hands in his pockets, his face showed an expression of being both smiling and serious at the same time. On top of his head, also seeming to b a part of him, was a bone like layered helmet, with what at first seemed to be two small antennae, but were really wolf ear shaped horns.
I honestly couldn't believe what I saw. Was it that they found a way, or that my incessant trying had actually worked. I stood up, as they came towards me.
"You guys… are really back?" I asked, still in disbelief
"Damn right we are; you didn't think death could really stop me did you?" Milton responded
"Well, I kinda did yeah… sort of…" I responded
"So… what do you say we kick some Hollow ass, for old time's sake?" Charlie asked
"Totally… b.t.w. these are Adjuchas." I said
"That just makes it that much more fun." Milton said
Just as they were about to jump in a strange squeaky voice came from behind.
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiit, wait, wait, wait! Don't start yet!" a girl said as she came near us
She stopped to catch her breath, her curly brown hair falling over her head. She wore the same style boots as Milton and Charlie, only shorter. She had a white skirt, a little above her knees, and a white sleeve less, v-neck top, with thin black outlines. She raised her head, which was when her mask remnant was visible. It was a tiara, shaped almost like a princesses crown, with a diamond shaped tip in the centermost spike.
She hugged Lahara, as they greeted each other happily.
"Arrancar number…. Number… anyway, Mia Halisama, fraccion of Charlie, at your service!" she said happily
"Now can we kick some ass?" Milton asked
"Fine, as long as you two don't leave me behind again!! I'm not that good a runner yet, I'm still new at this." Mia said
"Whatever, just kick some ass, sugar!" Charlie said, as he and Milton moved in for battle.
"Okay here goes… stand firmly on ground… draw out sword… point forwards… what was it now?… uhh… Roar… Tigeresa!" she said
A bright light escaped her Zanpaktou for a second, quickly fading out. That split second shine had caused her to change shape. She had grown a squiggly white tail, her hair was now very wavy with multiple white stripes. Her top was now a sleek tiger like armor. Her boots had become furry and covered her whole legs. Her forearms were covered by white gloves, which each held a short knife at the tip of her fists. Her tiara had expanded into sharp ears, and covered part of her head like a helmet.
"Wow, that's cool!" Lahara said
"It's not as easy to control as it looks." Mia responded as she ran into battle
She seemed to dance around the field and the Hollows, her fast pace steps followed by swift slicing sounds and splattered blood. Milton seemed to satisfy himself slashing like a mad man in all directions, while laughing maniacally. Charlie took his movements a bit slower, with more precise movements, and quick evasions.
I pulled out some bandages from my pockets and attended to Lahara's wound. Just then a familiar voice came flying from above, rotating a double blade in his hands while descending.
"I figured you'd be in trouble! Ban-kai!" it was Brian
Kouzoku no Ryukasai
Brian dashed in to battle as well, sending forward the multiple glowing blades that surrounded him. They sliced first then exploded. The battle had gotten a lot easier. Just when they were down to just a few, a call was heard from one of them.
"Retreat! We must return to our master!" they all took off leaving behind a small trace of dust
The guys gathered around where Lahara and I were. Mike was as happy as ever to have his friends back, even if they looked freaky. Brian, on the other hand, was utterly confused.
"But… I thought you guys were bad… and dead! And now you're good… and alive? How?" he asked
"That's actually the funny part, we don't know. We were laying low like Chris told us, until one day we started getting solid little by little." Milton explained
"Next thing we knew we were alive, with masks on. We agreed that we had gotten a second chance, so we thought we might take it and do something good for a change." Charlie added
"We ripped off parts of our masks, and they joined together and formed our Zanpaktou. We still don't know where the masks came from though." Mia said
"After that, we kept feeling bursts of reiatsu crash against us. There was another one today." Milton added
"Wait… that means my Kidou worked!" I said
"Say what?" Milton asked
"I made up a new Kidou to try to revive you guys by burning off my own energy; and it worked!" I said exited
"Dude, that is so awesome!" Mike said
"It very much is!" Mia said dancing
"So, cappy… what say you we head back to where we should be?" Brian said
"Eager much? Yea, let's go!" I said as we headed off back to our base at the abandoned storage house.