Happy Thanksgiving folks! A day early, but heh. Wednesday works.
BTW, since I've had it come up in reviews often... any pairings that happen to pop up in Strawberry are plot-related, and more than likely not what they appear. Strawberry was not written to be a pairing fic.
Chapter Three - The Hellbound
White.
Pure, pristine white sand. It stretched endlessly, as far as the eye could see, unbroken except for the few twisted, crystalline trees dotting the dunes. She realized they weren't really trees - the surface was cool and smooth under her fingertips, like polished quartz, and it shone in the light from the half moon in the cloudless, starless sky.
It was quiet save for the whistling of a slight breeze, one that brushed her unbound hair and coaxed her to let shut her eyes and inhale. It brought with it a coppery scent, heady and familiar… blood. Odd, considering there wasn't a soul in sight aside from herself, and she wasn't bleeding.
The breeze stilled, and in its place rose a howl, echoing from what had to be miles away. A long, piercing, bone-chilling howl….
A Hollow in pain, instinct told her.
A Hollow that had lost, that had been defeated, that would be consumed….
For some reason she wasn't surprised to have heard it.
As the cry abruptly cut off, she closed her eyes again. It was quiet save for the renewed whistling of the breeze, drenched so thickly with blood if she opened her mouth she could taste it.
Her lips curved into a pleased smile.
This was a good wind.
This was her kind of world.
Duck under the paw, shift the center of balance, harness the momentum, spring - Ichigo vanished from the ground, leaving a mark where her zanpakuto had bit into the dust, and buried said blade deep into the canine Hollow's white mask.
As the fallen soul fractured and dissipated into the air, she allowed the blade to slip to the ground, cradling her left arm gingerly, only now able to inspect the damage.
"Damn." She whistled. "That bitch messed me up good."
"You were cocky." Reappearing from behind the vehicle she had used as cover, Rukia shook her head in exasperation before she trotted over to Ichigo's side and inspected the wound with a practiced eye. "From the punctures it's a bite," she remarked, poking one of the rips, "but that… what did you do?"
Ichigo shrugged. "I wasn't going to let it take my arm off."
The disempowered shinigami looked both ways with an expression of one persecuted, before she closed her eyes and refocused on her task, actually jabbing one of her fingers into one of the bloody gashes and peering inside. "I won't be healing this completely. Your stupidity has torn the muscle… and there must have been some form of slow-acting corrosive in that Hollow's fangs or saliva. Next time be more careful."
A corrosive? Ichigo's lips twisted in irritation. Isn't chemical warfare a social taboo?
There was a sudden, brief surge in reiatsu, and then Rukia's hand lit with a faint glow that spread from her fingers into the bite. Ichigo made a face at the disconcerting feeling of the flesh of her arm knitting itself back together.
The orange-head frowned at her forearm after Rukia took her hand away, scowling. It wasn't quite closed up; the skin was still extremely tender where it had sealed, and here and there it hadn't, oozing blood. She closed her fingers into a fist, and winced when sections of the half healed skin tore apart.
"Really, Ichigo," Rukia said resolutely, "I am not going to exhaust myself just because you feel like being reckless."
Ichigo ignored her. I need to get this wrapped up so it doesn't tear even more…. She frowned. Here was a weak spot anyone with half a brain would exploit. Of course, most Hollows fight on instinct. A snort. Which is even worse.
"Come on, Kuchiki," she said roughly, taking her zanpakuto from the ground to sheathe it, "let's get back to school. Where'd you stash my body, anyway?"
"It's over there," Rukia replied tiredly, pointing.
Sure enough, Ichigo could see a tail of orange hair sticking out from behind the wheel of the disempowered shinigami's choice of cover, and she stalked over, sliding into her body with a hiss of pain. Rukia snickered faintly at the sound.
"Just so you know, injuries you take in your spiritual body accompany you when you return to your physical body."
Ichigo glared at her before rolling her eyes. For someone who claimed to be ten times her age, Rukia more often acted ten times as childish. "Let's get back to school," she decided. Thank god for Ochi… if anyone else taught, I'd be in detention for sure, and that's no fun. She shuddered. Not with that Oshima creep always there.
Five times. That was how many times Rukia's Hollow detector had gone off in the past day. The day prior had seen no attacks at all, and the preceding night had seen absolutely no sleep.
She wouldn't admit it if asked, but Ichigo was getting a bit worn down. A few fights a week were good, maybe daily if she was lucky, but six or seven during school and during the night? It was absurd.
I hope it doesn't last, Ichigo admitted grudgingly. A five-minute walk in silence followed, looping around to the Karakura High nurse's office for some bandages (Ms. Kangofu, the nurse, rolled her eyes and left Ichigo to wrap it herself, muttering about lame ducks while giving Rukia a look of contempt) before returning to the classroom a few minutes after lunch ended.
The sight that met her eyes in the classroom did not please her, but it did wipe any thoughts about the Hollows from her mind.
"Get off her, Chizuru!" She leapt forward, tearing the redhead off of Orihime. Chizuru's chin firmly in hand, she howled into her face, "What'd I tell you about touching Orihime, you shameless bitch?"
"You abandoned her, you hussy!" Chizuru retorted, lips twisted into a pout. "Hime's fair game!"
"Orihime's no one's game!"
"Except yours? You left her for the new girl!"
Rukia blinked. "…What?"
"Catfight!" Tatsuki grinned in amusement. She shook her head at the disempowered shinigami. "Don't mind them. Chizuru has a huge crush on Orihime - and with the way Ichigo acts… well, it's no wonder she sees Ichigo as competition."
"Rukia? Rukia? She's like my stalker!"
"Hey!" Mildly affronted, Rukia stepped forward, intent on slapping her substitute across the head; she was instead met with a dismissing smack across the stomach.
Goddamnit… Ichigo cringed as she felt still more of the bite gouges tear open, bleeding through the bandages.
"...Ichigo?" Chizuru stared at the cloth as it darkened with blood.
"Ichigo?" Orihime leaned around the orange-head's back, also staring at the bandages in horror. "What happened to your arm?"
Ichigo closed her eyes, and tried to think. The edge of her lip twitched upward. "A dog bit me," she answered, smirking at the disbelieving expression the comment garnered. Sure, there was no real dog in the area with jaws big enough to shred half her arm (and no real dog would ever manage to do anything like that), but the Hollow had been canine.
"A dog?" echoed Kunieda Ryo, looking up from her book. "Of course. Just like Sado nearly had his back broken by having an I-beam fall on him."
"Chad broke his back?" Chad? Break his back? No way.
"No." Kunieda looked faintly annoyed. "He came in about thirty minutes ago and tossed Oshima for having a go at Asano and Kojima." She frowned. "Actually, he asked for you."
Ichigo stared. "Eh? What was he asking for me for?" Maybe someone's pissed him off and he wants to give them a good reason to back off, so he wants me to assist in beating the shit out of them?
…Nah. Doubt it.
"He didn't say," Kunieda replied. "However… he brought something with him when he arrived earlier, a parakeet. I've never met one that spoke so well and so clearly, like a human."
"Like a human?" Ichigo repeated, and a jolt of what was probably paranoia ran through her.
"Yes, like a human. It even introduced itself… by the name of Shibata Yuichi."
Ichigo arrived home, Rukia trailing behind, to what could only be called chaos. The clinic was swamped; trussed up in her nurse's garb, Yuzu was directing traffic and trying to regain some sort of order up in the front, so that was where she headed.
"Ichigo!" Yuzu greeted her with a strained smile, and then caught sight of movement out of the corner of her eye. "You sir! Please sit down! We're doing all we can!" As the man sat back down, grousing, Yuzu answered Ichigo's unasked question. "There was a huge car wreck at the intersection. Five cars! There aren't enough beds, Dad can only concentrate on the worst while Karin deals with the rest on her own, and I can't help because everyone else refuses to stay put!" She sighed harshly.
Scowling, Ichigo glanced around. As she watched, the same man Yuzu had scolded stood up, crouching down, and tried to sneak off again. Good, an example. "Hey you, idiot!"
Yuzu jumped, the man froze and then made a run for it, and Ichigo was much faster.
"Going somewhere?" She smiled slowly, enjoying seeing the man quail.
To her disappointment, the other regained his spine a second later after a brief glance up and down, after his eyes lingered on her bandaged arm. He glanced over at Yuzu, standing, watching, and crossed his arms. "I am going to see my daughter, miss." Polite. "You see, she was injured badly-"
"Do you think I care about your daughter?" Ichigo cut in, not bothering to echo the man's politeness, which bordered on condescension. He stopped, blinking as if struck - the sentiment expressed throughout the room. She gripped the front of his shirt with her right hand, smiling unpleasantly. "But y'know what I do care about? Not much… but one of those is my sister."
Two-faced. Where a second before a room full of indignant people gawped at her insensitivity, the murmurs she now heard were of respect. Darling girl concerned for her family. She ignored them, dragging the man the few feet to his seat, since she couldn't lift him with one hand.
"One of those sisters of mine is very unhappy right now, because you idiots refuse to sit still and not be a nuisance," she continued. "That makes me unhappy, too." Grasping the man's chin firmly enough to make him wince, she forced him to meet her eyes, making sure her words were loud enough for the entire room to hear. "But there's one major difference between myself and my sister… if I'm unhappy, I don't hesitate to put an end to the source of that unhappiness. Do you hear?"
"Ichigo," Yuzu cut in. "You can't hurt them. We've few enough beds as it is!"
The orange-head split into a grin. God, I love my family. "Who said anything about giving them beds, Yuzu? The chairs work well enough. Now shoo."
The blonde Kurosaki shot Ichigo another smile, this one without the strain of the first, and vanished into the back.
"Ichigo…"
Noting that Rukia (who she had almost forgotten about) seemed a mixture of proud and ashamed, Ichigo set her face in a scowl. Ain't no way I'm sitting here, peddling to a bunch of whiners… "Watch them, will you?"
"What?"
"Ichigo, there's a big guy out here!" Isshin's voice interrupted the diatribe the disempowered shinigami looked about to spill. "Come on out and help me with him!"
Ha! Giving Rukia a smirk, Ichigo ambled out of the lobby, following Yuzu's path to the back. She had to dodge as Karin shot past like a bullet nearly dislodging the sign on the wall detailing the Kurosaki "Motto of the Day," this time reading Do or Die. The old fart had an interesting sense of humor at times.
"Over here!"
She looked over her shoulder and blinked in surprise. Of all the people… "Chad?"
Sado Yasutora - known to Ichigo and, thanks to her, most of the Karakura High freshmen class as "Chad" - looked up weakly from Isshin's shoulder. "Ichigo…?"
And no question why… On his back was an awful burn, almost like a handprint. And it stank, she realized, hauling Chad's other arms over her shoulder, not able to resist prodding the burn. She couldn't quite pin down the scent, but it was familiar.
When Chad shuddered from the light poke the orange-head whistled. "Some shithead really messed you up, Chad." She split into a malicious grin, and poked him a second time. "Who? Who is it?" A third poke, as they pulled him into one of the last free rooms. "Do I get to bust some heads?"
Chad chuckled weakly, and something slipped from his fingers, landing on the ground with a resounding clash. A birdcage, containing a somewhat ruffled parakeet….
He was gone. Chad was gone. The idiot had ran off with a birdcage of Hollow bait, a Hollow-inflicted injury on his back not healed in the slightest, and the knowledge he was dealing with something outside of his perception, and he hadn't even told her.
Ichigo was not sulking. Irritated, sure. Frustrated, certainly. More than ready to sock the half-Mexican a good one when she got the chance, but that would have to wait. Wait until she found him, which was looking to take a while.
"Shouldn't that phone thing of yours be of help here?" she snapped, stopping suddenly in the street.
Panting hard, Rukia couldn't stop so quickly, skidded into the orange-head's back, making her stumble. "I told you," she wheezed, "It won't…" Gasp. Wheeze. Didn't these shinigami have any fitness training? "…help until the Hollow… chooses to appear." She straightened, though still panting. "Most of the time, Hollows choose to reside in the overlap world, where this realm and the Soul Society meet. None of Soul Society's equipment works there, so the Hollows are safe."
Rukia closed her eyes and steadied her breathing. An amateur technique, Ichigo noted disdainfully, as the blackhaired former shinigami cursed "stupid gigai" under her breath.
Chad wasn't at school. Wasn't at the hospital, and wasn't at home (Rukia had looked at her oddly when she took her there). If it wasn't a Hollow, or she didn't know Sado, she might have decided he had finally grown a pair and chosen to fight for himself… but that didn't matter here. It was a Hollow and she knew Chad. And she couldn't let the fool get himself eaten.
There had to be a way to find him. Even if the Hollow wasn't around yet, it would be soon, and Ichigo didn't want another of those monsters in her territory or after her friends. Karakura was hers, damnit.
She blinked at a flash of… awareness. Chad was to the south. No, southeast. A couple blocks. Not far. She wasn't sure how, but she knew. Too bad it wasn't accurate enough.
Karakura…the streets, the buildings, the parks, the stores: she knew it like the back of her hand, and brought the image - a mental map of sorts - to the forefront of her mind. Like turning on the light in a room that had been dark too long, she was blinded and recoiled, but not before she had a trail to follow, a certainty.
"This way!"
She didn't notice the expression of utter shock on Rukia's face.
"Chad, he's behind you! Run!"
The voice was high and shrill, indicative of a young age. While young age usually meant mischievousness and tricks, Chad did not hesitate - but instead of running as he was bid, he turned on his heel and lashed out with a great fist.
There was no impact, no resistance to tell him he had made his mark - but somehow he knew.
"Goddamn you, Sado, what the fuck were you thinking by running off?"
Dumbfounded, Chad looked off to the left, where the voice came from. This isn't good. Ichigo - for it was Ichigo, as distant and strangely thin as her voice sounded, few girls cursed like her - may love fighting, but this was beyond her. She may see ghosts, but he was fairly sure she didn't see monsters.
No. It's better to leave her out.
With that in mind, he turned on his heel and took off in the opposite direction.
"Chad…"
"Yuichi…" he said quietly, "don't worry. I won't let it hurt you." He turned a corner into an alley that led to a deserted lot. "And I promise… I'll save your mother, too!"
After as much deliberation as could be squeezed into the space of a second, Ichigo made her decision.
His legs. She was going to break his legs. And then she was going to go over him with a fillet knife and dunk him in salt water and styptic (she wasn't going to kill him).
She stumbled back in pain, pulling her left arm to her chest. Damn Hollow… and damn Rukia for not healing it properly.
"A shinigami?" the Hollow said. "Well isn't this a treat. It's been two weeks since I had shinigami!"
Had shinigami?
Rukia, strapped to a table, struggling against the bonds as the girl she had saved cut down through her ankle.
"And even better," it continued, voice lowering into sarcastic concern. "Already wounded. Can you even swing that crazy-ass big sword of yours, shinigami?"
Shit. With her left arm messed up like it was….
Check that, Chad was going to die.
"I don't need a sword to rip a sissy little cocksucker like you to shreds," Ichigo was quick to rejoinder, eyeing the Hollow up and down. It had the disproportionate body that seemed common among Hollows, the clownish mask, and a strange fur ruff around its neck that resembled a mane; most worrying was the wings, similar to a bat's. It would be hard to fight a flyer in the air.
"Never fight on the enemy's home ground if it can be helped." It was one of the few things she had learned from her father (of all people).
Roaring with laughter at her remark, it took a moment to recover itself before it pointed a fat finger in her direction. "The girlie's got balls to back up that reiatsu of hers!" The mask adjusted slightly, portraying a grotesque grin. "What's your name, girlie?"
"Kurosaki Ichigo," she said, shifting her weight. The Hollow was top heavy - better to go low. "And you?"
"I don't remember my name," it said with a shrug. "That last shinigami I ate called me Shrieker, though. Mighty good eating, he was." A predatory grin - Ichigo was unimpressed. She could do better than that one. "Though, I always did like strawberries…"
The orange-head's eyes narrowed, and she allowed herself to fall.
Throw your weight to the side, spin.
There was a ridge in the ground below. Landing facedown, her palm pushed against it, reversing her momentum, and she lashed out with a kick. Shrieker, unprepared, was caught off-guard and had his leg taken out from under him.
Roll. Upright, follow up.
The second kick impacted neatly on the Hollow's mask, but it backpedaled, cutting the force by half; a hairline fracture appeared in the center, but it was otherwise unharmed.
Shrieker whirled around and struck out with an extended wing, while she leapt into the air, flipping to drive her heels into the appendage. There was a satisfying crack of broken bone - or the spiritual equivalent - and it howled in pain and outrage.
"You broke my wing, you bitch!"
She allowed herself a smirk, which morphed into a nasty grin. Score one for the shinigami… now he's earthbound.
Now we're even.
Rukia swore, and then had to reprimand herself a second later for picking up her charge's habits. Why did this "Chad" have to be so fast?
"Stupid gigai," she muttered, already panting. "It has no more strength than the average scrawny schoolgirl! I'm going to kill those research and development freaks - they're all about legs and boobs when it's muscle I need!" She thought enviously of Ichigo's strength - despite her nature, she did have the skill and stamina to back it up - and her stomach dropped. The orange-head's arm was still only half-healed.
She swore again. So much for discipline.
Ichigo can't play this time… but will she see that?
Rukia had to get back to the girl, to see if she could help. But first, that meant catching Ichigo's friend and the parakeet, which wouldn't happen if he didn't slow down.
"Chad!" Nearly choking from the effort of shouting while running at top speed, she nonetheless saw the half-Mexican look back for a moment. Then, he turned away and sped up.
She was breathing hard and she wanted to just collapse where she stood. There was no way she could catch them. Ichigo would have to understand that.
And if not… tough luck.
Rukia laughed tiredly and turned around, reaching out with her senses to find Ichigo.
"It looks like the girl gave up, Chad."
"That's good."
Slowing to a stop, Chad looked back in the vague direction of where he judged his black-haired follower to be. That was the new girl, he thought to himself. Not Ichigo. He toyed with the idea that Ichigo had decided against mothering him and to accept his decisions and then discarded it as highly unlikely. That was too logical.
About the new girl… didn't she follow Ichigo home…?
"I think we lost him," Yuichi announced, the parakeet's head turning from side to side. "I don't feel him any- oh my."
Chad felt a jolt of alarm. "What's wrong, Yuichi?"
"The girl with the orange hair… I felt her too, she's scary… She's fighting the monster…"
Ichigo's fighting it? He closed his eyes. She always managed to find a way to lend her particular brand of assistance, but this time, she would be lucky to get away with a few bruises. He had to help.
"Yuichi… where is she?"
The parakeet turned its head to look at him. "Not far… I think the other girl went to find her." As Chad nodded and, placing the birdcage on the sidewalk, began to turn around, Yuichi grew alarmed. "Chad, don't go! He'll get you!"
That's right; I should leave him with an escape route… He lifted the birdcage and opened the cage's door, placing it on top of the nearby fence.
"Chad, it's not me I'm worried about, it's you! What if he gets you?"
Chad gave him a thumbs-up but did not reply as he dashed off.
As it turned out, they weren't even.
Bloody and battered, Ichigo couldn't even take advantage of the fact that the Hollow's limbs had all been mangled in some way or another - she was forced to push her body past her limits, dodging, dodging, dodging.
Allies my ass, she thought, remembering a comment from the Hollow that it had "friends." Their numbers seemed endless, despite the ones she crushed and the ones that got caught in the crossfire. They actually looked a bit like rabbits until they squashed their heads, showering the area with leeches, of all things.
Leeches Shrieker used as bombs.
The tongue, the tongue…
She needed to rip the damn tongue out. Without it he couldn't detonate the bombs.
Out of the corner of her eye, Ichigo saw one of the rabbits begin to fire, and she used a second one as a spring board to get out of the line of fire. Still another leapt at her back, preparing another shot, and she couldn't wrench herself out of the way in time. The leeches exploded at a sound Shrieker made with his tongue, and Ichigo landed painfully on the ground.
"Oh yeah, oh yeah," Shrieker howled. "Did that feel good, shinigami?"
The rabbit sea parted as the Hollow slowly and laboriously dragged its carcass to where Ichigo got to her feet with as much difficulty.
"Silly little strawberry-bitch. I'm going to have fun eating -"
"The fourth destructive art: Byakurai!"
A flash of sizzling white lightning cut through the air in front of Ichigo, forcing the Hollow to step back or be jolted.
Ichigo blinked, a little dazed from that last explosion, and followed the bolt of lightning to its originator. "Rukia…?"
All the blood drained from the disempowered shinigami's face at the sight of Ichigo's condition. "My god… Ichigo!"
"I know that spell… it's kido," Shrieker remarked. "So there's another one, now?"
"Rukia, watch out - the little monsters spit bombs." Ichigo shook her head to clear it as the disempowered shinigami used a second Byakurai to clear a path to the orange-head. "Fuck, he's all but helpless, but I can't get to him or the zanpakuto…" She gestured vaguely at a mound of the little rabbit creatures that didn't attempt to move or to fire, and spotted another one that was about to. Setting her jaw, Ichigo seized Rukia's shoulder and pulled them both out of the way.
"We need the zanpakuto to finish him," Rukia said briskly, laying a hand on Ichigo's arms and attempting a hasty healing. "I'll clear a path - I should be able to manage Hinotama, but I'll need time to complete to incantation…"
Yet another rabbit was setting up to fire - but Ichigo wasn't going to be able to move fast enough, and Rukia, intent on her work, didn't see it.
But a second later, the rabbit was no more, squashed flat underneath to foot of another interloper.
"Uh, new girl... Did I just step on something?"
"Chad?" Ichigo gasped out, never so happy in her life to see him.
The half-Mexican frowned, glancing around. "Where's Ichigo? I can hear her…"
"What?" Rukia looked up, apparently finished, and then down, at the former rabbit.
"Him again," Shrieker groused. "The prick that punched me!"
Chad punched the Hollow….? No wonder it had crashed into her like it had. She would have to repay the favor earlier by breaking his arm in addition to his legs. The Hollow wasn't far behind Chad, Ichigo noticed. Within punching distance… "Chad, at five o'clock, six feet! Rukia, now!"
Her order gained her a strange look from Rukia, who nonetheless began her incantation, but Chad's momentary glance was at Rukia for mumbling nonsense. He turned on his heel, took a long step, fist extended, and landed the punch directly on its mask, forcing it several feet back.
"The eighteenth destructive art - Hinotama!"
A sea of red fire enveloped the little rabbits, and Ichigo lunged forward, grabbing the zanpakuto from the ground and unsheathing in one smooth motion.
Shrieker screamed, he begged, he tried to run as Ichigo bore down on it with the huge blade; she didn't bother to reply, just slashed down through its head, splitting the mask and the body in one blow.
"Rot in hell, you -"
Two huge towering doors, flanked with skeleton guardsmen. They were chained shut with four small chains, but they didn't appear very strong. In fact, they were breaking apart as Ichigo watched.
Ichigo leaped away as the doors exploded open; a giant hand, hefting an equally large blade shot forward from the doorway and speared the still decomposing Shrieker. Laughter echoed from the doorway as the Hollow was pulled inside.
As the blade disappeared, the doors swung shut with a resounding boom, and fractured into nothingness.
Threat eliminated, Ichigo allowed herself to fall to her knees. "What… was that?"
"That… was Hell," Rukia replied, and the topic was closed.
"I just... wanted to bring my mom back," the parakeet sobbed, head hung low in the cage. "And you all got hurt because of me…"
Shibata Yuichi - the soul of a boy, stuck somehow in the parakeet's body in conjunction with its own - had told his story; Shrieker had killed his mother when they were both alive, and had told him that if he would play his game for three months, he would bring his mother back. It was a lie, and had led to many deaths, including two shinigami, but Ichigo didn't really blame him.
I need to train with handicaps, she decided after a moment's reflection, stretching her worn body as Rukia tried to talk the boy into going to Soul Society by saying things that could have been in a travel brochure.
"Shibata," she interrupted, "when people die they stay dead. I can sympathize with her feelings for your mother, but you need to get over it."
"Ichigo!" Rukia snapped.
"Shut it, Rukia." She unsheathed her zanpakuto for Konso. "Instead of moping and trying to bring her back… make her proud. Now get out of my sight." Despite the roughness, the tone took most of the bite out of the words.
A little wide-eyed, but with a small smile, the ghost of Shibata Yuichi disappeared.
Rukia blinked. "Ichigo… that was almost kind. What's wrong with you? What do you mean, can sympathize?"
"Are you saying I can't be kind?" Ichigo demanded, shooting the disempowered shinigami a nasty glare. But as she stretched, her glare let up. "I'm just in a good mood. Had a good time."
"Had a good time?" Rukia repeated, and her expression said 'what the hell?' even if she would not. "You nut job, you nearly got killed!"
So easy to distract. Ichigo smiled slowly, thinly, predatorily. "Well, then I'd have died happy." It's almost funny.
"Ichigo, you - you - arrgh!"
But, Rukia… some things are none of your business. My mother is one of them.
End third overly canon chapter. Boring (like pulling teeth... only less exciting), but a lot is set up here. I look forward to the next, muhaha. And the one after.
On Shrieker - his ability could have been extremely dangerous. In canon, he just didn't use it right. Hado 18: Hinotama I made up. Luckily I didn't have to come up with the incantation for it, because it's one hell of a whole lot harder than you'd think.
Sayonara!
