SEVEN
CEASE
"MOVE!"
Rukia heard someone scream from behind her and turned to see Soi Fon charging ahead of her.
What the hell?
She didn't think further as she joined the battle. Everywhere around her, yelling and screaming filled the skies, blood spurted into sight, bodies fell.
A battlefield.
Rukia shouted as she slew her enemies, swiftly delivering fatal blows and nothing more. She didn't like to toy with her prey; she just didn't like to. She knew some people enjoyed doing just that, torturing their victims slowly until they succumbed to death.
But she wasn't one of them.
Nearby, Rangiku slipped gracefully between a couple of men, swinging her sword that killed both instantly. Her long, thick hair swirled around her. She turned to Rukia and gave her a teasing, winning smile.
Rukia rolled her eyes, kicking an enemy in the knees. "Is this really the time for being glamorous?"
Rangiku grinned. "Honey, you always have to be 'glamorous'. It's in the women's rulebook, you know. One you probably didn't read!"
The smaller of the two women made a face at her friend while whipping an arm into the neck of an enemy. His neck broke.
"I don't like rules for women," Rukia stated simply. "Makes you feel...confined."
The blonde woman sent a high kick in one man's jaw and a shot through one's brains. "We don't really follow the rules, Rukia-chan." Rangiku's grin widened further. "We break them."
"Then what's with all the 'glamorous' junk?" Rukia ducked as a man swung a wicked looking blade towards her head. Quickly, she stabbed her sword into his chest.
"That," Rangiku said. "is the only rule you have to follow properly!" Rukia snorted.
"Hey! What's all this talking?"
Both women barely needed to turn their heads to know that it was Kûkaku who had spoken.
"So?" Rangiku asked, yelping a little when an enemy almost got her.
"Need I remind you that this is a battle?" Kûkaku punched the man hard in the jaw, dislocating it. "Go and fight for God's sake and stop chattering like old ladies."
"You know, Vice, you should try talking during a battle. It's quite fun." Rangiku twirled around, smacking a young man with her assets and sending him falling to the ground. "Oops! My bad!" She looked sympathetically at the guy, saying, "My apologies." With that, she slit his throat in a smooth, short stroke.
"And Vice!" Rangiku turned before she and Rukia strode off in different directions. "We're not old ladies!"
~~~ xxx ~~~
"Nanao! Prepare the launchers!" Yoruichi said, waving one hand wildly. Nanao's eyes widened. She nodded and began calling some of the girls.
They burst into their stores and began taking out the missile launchers, long gun-like weapons with a lethal punch. Nanao called for some silence before she said, "When we take these out you know we're in some trouble... Right, girls. Make groups of two or threes. Check the launcher numbers. Those are your positions and you know where they are. Wait for my signal and then start shooting. Okay? Let's go!"
The girls nodded grimly and trooped out of the large storehouse, carrying missiles and spreading out to take their positions around headquarters. Nanao herself quickly ascended the warehouse by the stairs, reaching the open rooftop.
There she met a pair of girls with a launcher at ready. Nodding at them, she took her place opposite them and readied her own, aiming the machine at their enemies down below.
Every second that passed meant more damage to their side, but Nanao knew she had to wait for the right moment. Not only that, she had to let the other girls prepare before she shot.
Five minutes passed. The enemy had yet to notice their launchers as they were strategically placed to be well hidden but could deliver a fatal shot.
Nanao looked down on the ravaged grounds of their headquarters. The women were desperately fighting; she could the leaders urging and leading their fighters. She saw Yoruichi and Kûkaku fighting side by side. Nemu was nearby as well, clashing violently with a blond-haired man.
Finally, she saw the moment to shoot.
"FIRE!"
The deafening boom of several launchers fired at once echoed loudly. The enemies, unsuspecting of the hidden attack, looked up in surprise, meeting with the missiles head on. Nanao knew they wouldn't survive.
Painfully, she reloaded and fired another shot. Nanao watched as the men, screaming, began to flee, though some still persisted. Those were easily fought off and dispatched by the women whose spirits have raised from their backup.
She saw the enemy's third-rank, Abarai Renji, call in his troops to retreat. The red-haired man was hurrying away as well.
Nanao lowered her launcher after her fourth shot. She had never liked using the destructive weapon; it was too cruel, she thought darkly. Not only that, using the object was incredibly risky as anyone could be hit by it, enemy or not. That was why they rarely ever used them. Only when the situation was dire did they take the machines out.
The last of the enemy warriors disappeared and silence fell over headquarters.
~~~ xxx ~~~
Rukia was walking through the wreck of the battle, studying the bodies littered all over the ground, counting silently the number of their dead.
One body she could not identify. It was blackened and crumbling and the stench of it could be smelled over all the other reek of destruction. She stooped down and gingerly touched the slightly visible head, turning it to the side. It was one of the enemy.
Scoffing slightly, she moved on.
Suddenly, one of her apprentices came up to her, bleeding, but okay.
"Rukia-sama!" the girl, Hanako, panted.
"What is it?' Rukia saw the haunted look on Hanako's face, the distraught curve of her mouth.
"You have to come!" The girl rushed away, not waiting to see if Rukia was following. Taking a deep breath, Rukia ran after her.
Hanako led her to the other side of the battlefield, where several other women were walking to. Rukia nodded stiffly to them as they passed.
Rukia's apprentice brought her to a body so badly damaged she, at first, could not decipher who it was. The enemy had mangled the girl so horribly that Rukia's anger burned.
She crouched down beside the corpse and inspected the body. It couldn't even be called a 'body'; the girl was split and cut up, her organs spilling over the ground, blood pooling around her.
"Who is this?" Rukia tried to figure out who it was, but the girl was completely shredded!
Hanako's sobbing made Rukia look up in concern.
"I saw...her...killed..." the apprentice managed.
"Who is – "
Rukia didn't finish her sentence as Hanako dropped to her knees, bowing low, tears streaming down her face. Under her breath, she muttered something inaudible.
"Hanako! Who is this?" Rukia asked, panic rising in her chest.
The girl looked up. "Kana-chan," she finally whispered.
Rukia sucked in a sharp breath and turned to the corpse. Looking closely now, she could see the same brown hair Kana had and although the one eye staring back at her was already paling, she could see the faint traces of brown in them.
"Kana..." Her teeth gritted together and her hands became fists. Rukia could feel the burning in her eyes as she stared at the dead girl.
"Who killed her?" she asked Hanako softly.
"A-a boy. He had black hair, a little taller than I am. I felt the murderous intent he had, Rukia-sama! It was horrible what he did! After he had...killed...Kana...one of his superiors came to him and I could see him yelling at the boy. The superior had red hair and he was livid. But the boy didn't seem to care.. He ran away and carved...Kana some more...before he disappeared. I-I tried to find him later, but I couldn't. Forgive me."
Rukia stood up after hearing Hanako's explanation. "No. It's good that you didn't encounter him. He sounds dangerous. I wouldn't want to lose another one of you."
She helped Hanako up. "Get to Shizuka and Miho. They're inside getting patched up."
"B-but, Kana-chan..."
"Don't worry. She will be given a proper burial." Rukia squeezed Hanako's shoulder comfortingly. "Go now."
Her apprentice nodded respectfully and gave one last tear-filled look to Kana before heading into headquarters.
Rukia's cheek felt damp when she turned away.
~~~ xxx ~~~
"Heavy casualties," Nanao announced once the meeting was in session.
"Yeah.." Yoruichi pressed her palms together, staring hard into the wood of the table.
"What now?" Kûkaku said, her face looking as tired as the rest of the women in the room.
"We recover and fast. We can't risk an attack soon but we have to be ready in case they decide to launch another assault."
"But their forces have suffered major casualties as well," Nemu pointed out. "Another attack would seem unlikely."
Yoruichi looked up at Nemu with one golden eye. "You're right. But we've been through this before once. They recovered almost immediately after that attack some weeks ago and launched another onslaught. We have to be prepared."
The leader raised her head, clenching her hands together. She saw the looks on the faces of her women; they were all bandaged up in some way and looked beat and unsettled. Kûkaku was rubbing her temples, Rangiku was unusually quiet. Soi Fon had her eyes closed, her back against her seat. Rukia and Nanao sat stiffly, the former staring at the table. Nemu was rubbing her thumb against her forefinger.
"Right. Meeting's over. Get some rest. We're going to have a long day tomorrow."
