Chapter 4: A Strigon's Last Dance
Sendai, Japan
1330 Hours
"Blaze to 10th Division. Meet up with Edge and leave this battle to me. He and I have a little score to settle…"
"Awe, Blaze is gonna go avenge his girlfriend…"
"Motormouth Chopper, unless you want to be designated as an enemy as well, you'll shut the fuck up…"
"Yes, sir…" While Chopper's reasons were partially true, the main reason why he wanted revenge against this Strigon was the only memory he had left from when he was living. All he could recall is that he was quite similar to the kid that Edge had found. He was hiding under his family's car in the driveway as he watched in horror as this Strigon proceeded to devour his parents and his younger sister. This memory haunted him to the day.
"To think, you've haunted me all these years…" Blaze scowled. "I'd normally just defeat a Strigon like you with little trouble, but you… you are deserving of a much more painful death…
Rain Death Upon the Land, Razgriz..."
This chant was the signal to Blaze's Zanpakutou, named Razgriz, to release itself, and change into its Shikai form. Razgriz's body began to distort under a cloud of reiatsu, changing into a more graceful, deadlier form. The body streamlined and the variable-geometry wings inverted. The rear stabilizers and the elevators fused into a single unit, but Razgriz maintained its signature jet-black coloration.
"Let's see how you fair against Razgriz's special attack…" Blaze chuckled slightly maliciously. He pressed a button on the end of his joystick. "Go… Wings of Despair…"
Razgriz's wings spread wide and began to glow red with Blaze's reiatsu. The reiatsu was focused along the wing and off the wingtip, forming into a giant pair of red blades of energy. Blaze accelerated, passing by the Strigon at high speed. A screech of agony emanated from the foul beast as the blade sliced it in two before its body began to disintegrate into the infinite.
1400 Hours
"Edge-fukotaichou, I'd hate to be the bearer of bad news…" Swordsman began, "but I've just finished looking over Ixiom and it isn't good. I-"
"Wait, Ixiom? Who's this Ixiom?" Chopper interrupted.
"You know, Chopper," Edge growled, the tension in her voice growing, "If you weren't always talking, you'd know that Ixiom is the name of my Zanpakutou."
"Well, more like… was…" Swordsman corrected. "As I was saying, the results from the check I ran indicate that Ixiom is so badly damaged, that if we could fix it, it would never fly the same again. Now, I've already brought this to Cipher-sotaichou's attention, and apparently a new Zanpakutou has chosen you already." Swordsman looked over the note he scribbled out a few minutes ago. "Its name is… Blue Dove…"
"You're kidding, right?"
"No, ma'am."
"Oh, the irony…"
"Umm… how is it ironic?"
"Guess you never heard of the story…" She glanced over her shoulder, "Probably because Chopper was talking through all of it!" She turned back to Swordsman. "Long ago, there was a demon that resided in the northern seas, but then it died. Normally, one soul is used to make one Zanpakutou, but this demon's soul contained so much power, it was used to make two Zanpakutous. Those two were the taichou's Zanpakutou, Razgriz, and, you guessed it, Blue Dove. So, Razgriz and Blue Dove are literally twins, and now, they just happen to be in the care of the two highest officials of the same division."
"Intriging…" Atsushi stated. "So does that mean Blue Dove will be able to do the same slice-and-dice thing as your taichou?"
"Uhh… Edge? Who's the kid?"
"Isn't is obvious, Archer?" Blaze asked. "This was the kid that Cipher-sotaichou was telling us about. He's one of those extremely rare humans that have a strong enough reiatsu to be able to see us. What's your name, kid?"
"Atsushi… sir."
"Please, cut the formalities. Your not one of us… yet. I will tell you this, though. When you die, you'll make one helluva Shinigami. Trust me on this, I was just like you."
"So you could see those… things… also?"
"Yeah… although I sorta wished I didn't. It was that Strigon that killed my family when I was around your age. He was probably after me, which is why I feel so lucky to be alive, yet so aggravated that is was my fault my family died."
Blaze stared up at the afternoon sky, deep in thought. He would occasionally glance over at Edge and Atsushi, but would instantly turn back to the sky. After about a minute, he finally spoke again.
"Edge… I know it's going to take 4th Division a while to organize a proper rescue effort for you, and it'd take even longer to find a way to transport Blue Dove here, so it seems it will be a while before you'd be able to return to B7R… So… I want you to stay here and watch over the kid until then. If the Strigons are after him, we wouldn't be able to respond fast enough to save him if we were relying on the typical reports from the Command Center. You understand what I'm getting at?"
"Understood, sir."
"Good girl…"
