Chapter 4 - Traps!
In an instant Hitsugaya, Rose and Akon appeared in a place far from Seireitei. They were prepared to fight immediately, but their opponent didn't attack. Lun, the Unperishable, was just standing accros them, about 20 meters away, looking at them. Around him they could see nothing but sand, far in the distance was a bright barrier, which must've been the boundary for the battlefield. Taking the distance to the barrier in accordance Hitsugaya deduced they were standing in the middle of the ring.
"Akon! Now!" Rose shouted.
Akon immediately took a device with a lot of buttons out of his robe, he pressed the most outstanding, red button. This resulted in the device expanding around him and within seconds Akon was sitting in his own mobile research centre. The 4 square meter centre started floating above the ground, suddenly it accelerated southwards, towards the barrier.
Akon's loud voice was heard all over the fighting area: "Everything is in place you guys, I can communicate with you at any time from this indestructible research facility. I will keep track of everything that happens during this fight. I will stay out of your way, good luck."
Rose let out a sigh of relief, this did not seem necerssary at all though, since Lun never appeared to have the intention to attack Akon, or anyone else for that matter.
"How about we settle this fight with a game of chess?" Lun suddenly said.
"Are you kidding me?!" Hitsugaya reacted, "Sit Upon the Frozen Heavens! Hyorinmaru!"
As Hitsugaya activated his Shikai, rose had already put up his mask. Kinshara was floating in front of him, the scabbard was floating beneath it in a perpendicular fashion. At the same time Hitsugaya sent out three ice dragons towards Lun. Lun who was standing on the same spot this whole time now tried to dodge for the first time, he could, however not move his legs and the ice dragons hit him in the chest.
"Great binding Rose!" Hitsugaya shouted, "let's finish him!"
Apparantly Rose's Arpeggio succeed in binding Lun legs, Lun was now completely sealed and Hitsugaya and Rose were closing in at incredible speed. Lun smiled as out of his harness came a big yellow flame, melting the ice. He grabbed his sword from his back and blocked both Hitsugaya and Rose at once.
"Meet my zanpakto: Le sabre est toujours vaincu par l'esprit! Cerveaux!"
Lun pushed with his zanpakto to jump back. Out of his harness, which turned out to have a built-in flamethrower, now came to metal strings, going down all towards his feet. When at his feet the metal strings formed springs around his feet.
"You two are very powerful, I wouldn't last long fighting you directly. Let's see how you handle my fighting style!" Lun yelled. He jumped a few time with his new spiral footwear, until he suddenly jumped so high that Rose and Hitsugaya lost sight of them.
"You guys, he went eastward, but watch out he seems to be manipulating the area somehow, his reiatsu is all over the place." Echoed Akons voice through the area.
"Let's follow him Rose, we won't need to take very long with this guy." Hitsugaya said.
The duo started rusting towards the east boundary of the area, simultaneously they released their zanpakto's once more: "Bankai: Daiguren Hyōrinmaru." "Play. Kinshara."
"With this tempo we will reach him in no time," Hitsugaya noted, "Akon are we still going in the right direction?"
"Positive."
Just as Akon confirmed this, all around Hitsugaya and Rose crossbow-like machines came out of the ground, they started shooting bolts rapidly in the duo's direction. To the captains the arrows traveled fairly slow, Rose jumped in and used his whip todestroy the arrows, respectively the crossbow very relaxed.
"Wire trap," Hitsugaya said holding a thin rope in his hand, "this wire was seemingly strechted across the whole length of the area."
"Did he really think he'd get us like that?" Rose said, "I can't believe this is everything just yet, Akon anything standing out that we should know of?"
"I'm not registering any irregularities, I'm sorry." Akon replied.
"We should be aware of more traps, apparently this is his fighting style," Hitsugaya mentioned, "let's proceed.
Almost immediately after proceeding again Hitsugaya gave Rose a sign to stop.
"This is just too easy, he said as he launched a big beam of ice seemingly into the ground. Upon this a very big area of ground collapsed, about 1 square kilometer, underneath this collapsed ground was now a huge block of ice. "He tried to trap us into this pitfall. Would you look at that."
In the giant block of ice a lot of very big sea creatures could be seen. They seemed dangerous but with the water being frozen they posed no treat at all.
"Pathetic, he is underestimating us. But we must be getting close let's go," Hitsugaya said annoyed.
...
"Soi-fon-sama! Did you want to speak to me?" Yelled Yoruichi, running through the crowd towards Soi-fon.
"Yoruichi-san, yes," Soi-fon answered, "on behalf of the strategic unit I need to ask you about your current powerlevel. On behalf of myself I need to ask what the hell you are doing here!"
"Yamamoto-sama asked me, after I heard about the situation I decided I would help. Even though this is very unusual for me I also want to test out my new powers and fight some strong opponents." Yoruichi answered.
Soi-fon nodded, irritated by Yoruichi's relaxedness: "So, would you take your zanpakto and show us your current power level?"
"I'm afraid I can't do that..." Yoruichi answered.
"Look there's no point in hiding it from us! If you want to help soul so-" Soi-fon got interrupted by Yoruichi.
"I don't have my Zanpakto anymore."
"What?"
"I parted with my Zanpakto, forever."
"What? How come? Is that even possible?"
"Ooh well, I have it somewhere, but I don't use it anymore."
"Why not?"
"I feel like it was holding me back, it was holding back my progression in Shunko. Believe me I'm stronger now, in fact I'm still a lot stronger than you."
"You most certainly are not, but I understand and I will discuss your role with Ukitake."
"Great, you do that."
...
"There he is!" Hitsugaya shouted, "let's take him out now!"
Hitsugaya and Rose had run all the way to the border of the area, Lun was standing very close to it. He seemed to be standing still, but as soon as Hitsugaya and Rose saw him he started charging towards them, they did the same. As their three swords clashed a huge explosion occured at the center of the clash. The dust cleared and only Hitsugaya and Rose were left over, they had red, slimy stuff on their body, it wasn't blood and the next second they dropped their swords and then fell on the ground. Hitsugaya looked scared, and even Rose didn't wear his calm expression as usual.
"What... the... fu-" Hitsugaya tried to say.
"Feeling a bit limb?" Lun said mockingly, "you are now under the influence of my homegrown drug, which put you in a near comatose state. Let me explain you how, before I slith your troath, I'm very proud of it you know. My paralyzing slime has two very important properties: It's attracts to magnets, and it needs a catalyst to become paralyzing. That version of me you just attacked was actually one of my traps, a mirage, I redirected you to the exact spot I planted my slime mine. But that isn't all, you would have easily dodged it during the last second right? Sadly for you two you were covered in magnetic dust, which my crossbows shot at you during that trap you "easily dodged". This dealt with the issue of you two being too quick. The other issue was the catalyst, luckily I got you two to inhale that before you attacked my mirage. Remeber the pitfall? You shouldn't be so eager and rush right in, as soon as you crushed the ground a gas located in the pitfall came free and you inhaled it. Congratulations to me for making it invisible and odorless."
"So that's it," Lun continued, "you are now at my mercy, looks like soul society couldn't even finish their first fight!"
Lun raised his sword.
"Let's kill the cocky little one first," he smiled.
By now Hitsugaya was completely paralyzed, he could hardly concentrate on what Lun was saying anymore. Fighting extremely hard to keep his eyes open he saw Lun's blade coming closer in slow-motion.
BUZ!
A bolt of lighting struck down and hit Lun in his sword, swinging him back a few meters, he stood up immediately though.
"What?! That should have killed you in an instant!" Akon said surprised. Akon who had registered Rose's and Hitsugaya's reiatsu decreasing to almost zero had rushed to get there immediately in his flying station. He was now attacking Lun with his only weapon, an electrical discharge from his research centre. "Shit! It doesn't seem to hurt him at all, I'm left with one other option though!"
The research centre flew away from Lun and towards his fellow shinigami, Akon fired another lightning bolt, at them.
"NO!" Lun screamed, and he fired something from his harness at Akon.
The bombs hit Akon and his station, and destroyed the propeller on his mobile centre, it began crashing down towards Hitsugaya and Rose.
"Come on guys! Move! Get out of the way!" Akon yelled.
They wouldn't move and before Akon knew it he hit the ground, crashing down on Hitsugaya and Rose. Actually it was a lot earlier than he had anticipated, and as he looked out of the window he saw he was still in the air. Akon looked on his radar and saw that reiatsu levels had risen again.
"You really saved us there, Akon!" Rose said happily, while carrying the station togeter with Hitsugaya.
"I'm not safe just yet, the place is overheating! I'll get out! Throw it away!" Akon said panicky.
"Oh shi-!"
Akon jumped down as Hitsugaya and Rose threw the station away, it exploded before even getting out of sight.
"I thought that thing was indestructible!" Hitsugaya remarked.
"Well not if I start discharing electric bolts like that," Akon answered, "I'll go check out if anything is left of it."
"You bastards! I should've considerd the third guy!" Lun complained, "but I won't let you outsmart me a second time."
Lun grabbed his harness with two hands, a lot of things fell out of it as he took it off. Lun didn't seem to care about it and threw it all away. Then he grabbed a spot on his neck, his face turned full of pain as he pulled a small device out of the back of his neck. He held it in his hands and it was the size of small coin, he threw that away as well. Immediately his reiatsu level started to raise far above what it was before, so much that Hitsugaya and Rose could easily sense it had doubled at least 4 times.
"Bankai: Cerveaux Intelligents"
"Hitsugaya-taichou! I think it's really time to get serious now, "Rose said, "Bankai!"