It's certainly been a while. Sorry for the delay; I've been busy and my inspiration for this story waned for a little while, but I got it back for long enough to write this chapter. It's a little longer than normal to make up for the delay.
Enjoy!
Chapter 8
"No."
"No."
"No."
"Nope."
"No."
"Nope."
"Nothing."
"Empty."
"Not here."
"Nothing."
"No."
"Nope."
"Empty."
"Clear."
"Nothing."
Hollow Zangetsu slammed the latest door shut and opened the one next to it with more force than necessary, his scowl growing even darker when he saw that there was nothing beyond the new door besides white space. He turned to face Ichigo as he pulled it shut and nearly broke the door from the force he used.
The substitute Shinigami was standing across the opulent, red-carpeted hallway and opening the doors that lined that side with much the same result as his partner, who Ichigo kept materialized because of his help in opening the doors. Beyond the pair, the hallway seemed to stretch for infinity in both directions.
"King, this witch is getting on my nerves. She's not behind any of these doors and it's pissing me off! We've been searching for her for a whole goddamn hour!"
Ichigo sighed, shutting the door he had just opened with more force than entirely necessary. "Yeah. She must have trapped us in some kind of spell; no doubt her home was riddled with traps that we couldn't detect."
"And we got stuck in the Hallway of Infinite Damn Doors?"
"Apparently." Ichigo stretched. "Honestly, I'm done playing games."
Zangetsu grinned. Something dark flickered in the expression, something that would send chills down a normal person's spine. Ichigo, however, was anything but normal. "Finally, King."
In a flash, Zangetsu had transformed into a blade in Ichigo's hands. After being obscured by a brief cloud of blue Reiatsu, Ichigo held his cleaver and trench blades in both hands. He took a deep breath and concentrated, pushing his Reiryoku into the swords as he brought them up. He opened his eyes.
"Getsuga Jūjishō," he said quietly, bringing his swords down in a crossed pattern.
The x-shaped energy attack, filled with power and destructive potential, tore into the nearest walls and exploded in a brilliant display of strength. It took out the walls for hundreds of meters ahead of Ichigo, reducing them to nothing more than piles of rubble.
The entire structure shook and cracks spider webbed along the walls and floors. Chandeliers crashed to the ground and sent shards of glass flying through the air as the ornate designs were reduced to scrap.
Dust erupted from the collapsing structures and the shockwave blew through the air, pushing Ichigo's hair back just in time for his face to get slammed with tiny particles of the one-impressive hallway. The man didn't flinch at the dust - his Hierro protected him - and with swords in hand he waited, tuning out the final dying moments of the world that had existed around him for the past hour in favor of focusing on the voice he could hear.
It was oddly easy to hear despite the amount of noise around Ichigo.
"Aw, you broke it! Meanie, I wasn't done getting ready to meet you!"
"That's unfortunate," Ichigo said, his voice a frigid monotone as his surroundings seemed to freeze in time and then crack like a broken mirror before the entire thing simply shattered, falling away to nothing and revealing Ichigo's true environment. Ichigo didn't blink as a much smaller cave enclosed him and the fake light died. His eyes adjusted quickly and he was able to make out the witch standing away.
She could not be anything but a witch; a smile adorned her youthful features but there was a twist to it, something that spoke of a demented nature despite her initial sweet appearance. A pointed hat sat on top of her head at a perfectly straight angle, and her entire aura radiated order. Her black hair fell in curls to her shoulders and her green eyes glowed with surprising anger that contrasted heavily with her light tone.
"Do you have any idea how long it takes to set up a pocket dimension like that?" She asked. Ichigo didn't respond, and she continued while throwing out her arms for emphasis. "Weeks! The amount of power it takes to maintain is something I doubt your puny little brain can comprehend, and then you go and break it before its self-regenerative properties can recover from the damage and prevent it from destabilizing! How . . . how utterly rude! And you broke my power generation runes, you idiot! Those took days to make and years to perfect!"
"That's unfortunate," Ichigo repeated, his voice growing colder. The witch paused, sensing that things were perhaps more dangerous for her than she had first thought.
"Hold on," she said, her eyes narrowing. "What was your name again?"
"I never said it."
"Well, I'm asking for it now."
"It's rude to ask for my name without giving me your own."
The witch's glare became decidedly more dangerous. "Maybe I'm a rude person. Did you ever think of that?" She frowned. "Who are you, anyway? How did you find my home?"
"Considering it's the only cave in this area and the amount of strange phenomenon that have been recorded around here lately, it wasn't that hard to guess. Plus, I could sense your power from a ways away."
She grit her teeth. "So. I should've been using Soul Protect during my adventures, hm? Unfortunate. Well, I suppose I can compensate for my losses by killing you!"
Orbs of energy, black as pitch, grew in her hands, quickly warping in such a way that they gave Ichigo a headache to look at. The substitute Shinigami's senses told him that touching those spheres would be a mistake, so he waited for the witch to cast her spell before he attacked, mentally preparing in case he needed to dodge.
"Vortex shot!" The witch cried, throwing her hands forward and releasing the spheres. Ichigo instantly dove to one side, narrowly avoiding the first - which crashed into and detonated against the cave wall - and cursing when he realized that the second was moving more slowly and following him. In an instant, the substitute Shinigami had gotten up and used Shunpo to appear behind the witch, placing his trench knife at her throat while a wordless Bakudō number four: Hainawa snaked around the witch's body and rendered her immobile.
"I would suggest dispelling that spell," Ichigo said, his voice deceptively soft. The strange orb was within five meters of the teen.
Four meters. The witch was doing her best to glare at Ichigo even without looking.
Three meters. Ichigo could see the sweat on her skin.
Two meters. Ichigo's instincts were telling him to move, to get out of the way.
One meter. The witch opened her mouth the cancel the spell, but in the instant before she did the orb suddenly shot forward. Ichigo tried to pull her away, but the witch had vanished. Ichigo looked around, confused, as an odd silence settled over the cave like a stifling blanket. Even the oddly colored fires that had burned in the torches had gone out, their light gone, the power that had been fueling them cut off.
"The fuck? Where'd she go?"
"Could the witch have escaped?"
No. Ichigo looked around and then crouched next to where the witch had vanished, placing his palm on the ground. The last witch was a clear demonstration that Bakudō halts the flow of magical energies in witches, so she couldn't have teleported.
"Perhaps she did so in the split second after your binding was destroyed by the orb and before she was touched."
I doubt it. She was opening her mouth to dispel that orb, not teleport. She must not have realized that the orb would jump forward.
"It's her spell. Is she a dumbass or somethin?"
Ichigo sighed, standing up once more. Something caught his eye, however, and he picked it up.
It was a glittering gold earring. With another sigh—though it was more a half-groan—Ichigo straightened fully and put the earring on the desk nearby. "This is pointless. The witch is gone. Dead. Whatever."
"That was her earring, was it not?"
Yeah.
"So? Let's just hunt down another one!"
I don't know where another witch would be, Zangetsu. I marked all the possible locations and this was the last of them.
Ichigo's Zanpakutō spirit grew quiet. Ichigo knew he wasn't going to admit it, but he was pleased with the fact that he didn't have to stay materialized all the time now that Ichigo was no longer In Death City. He claimed it was "boring" and "not worth it if there ain't a fight".
Ichigo agreed, but appearances were appearances.
After a cursory glance at the rest of the cave, Ichigo walked over to the desk and began rifling through its contents, searching for any kind of clue that would give him a lead on the source of the hollows. Practice with a certain lazy captain of the Eighth Division of the Gotei Thirteen meant that Ichigo was quick when it came to looking at papers, and though he didn't understand half the things written on the pages, he only needed to find a few certain pieces of information.
None of which were immediately obvious.
Resisting the urge to rip the latest sheet of useless notes in half, Ichigo set the paper down and opened one of the drawers, rifling through the odd knick-knacks that filled it, only to stumble across something that made his instincts cry out in warning.
Cursing his luck, Ichigo leaped back and disappeared in a flicker of Shunpo right as the entire cave exploded.
"A failsafe?" Ichigo muttered, watching as the entire thing came crashing down as dust billowed from the rapidly shrinking opening. "Damn. I should've expected something like that; a few of those rooms were filled with bombs."
"Most of 'em were just white space."
Yeah.
With one last glance at the destroyed cave, Ichigo began walking away, down a path that was only barely visible through the densely forested area that made up the base of the mountain. Before he could use Shunpo, however, a sudden disturbance registered in his senses.
Eyes narrowing, Ichigo turned in the direction of the fluctuation and jumped above the trees before using Shunpo to get to the site as quickly as possible.
In less than thirty seconds, the sounds of screams reached his ears and Ichigo let out a string of curses as a forest village came into view, half the homes on fire and at least a quarter of the remaining ones crushed or broken. Ichigo could see bodies and bright splotches of crimson decorating the walls and ground, but to his relief there were still some people running from the numerous hollows that were systematically destroying the village.
Honing on a hollow that looked particularly nasty, Ichigo dropped out of the sky and neatly bisected it before scooping up the child the hollow had been chasing and diving out of the way of another hollow's strike. With a glance at the small girl to make sure she was okay, Ichigo proceeded to dance around the hollow's series of attacks, using Zangetsu's blade to deflect any that came too close. When the hollow's guard slipped, Ichigo lunged, his blade piercing its mask and coming out the other side of its head.
The thing let out a dying screech before dissipating, its soul lingering. Ichigo eyed the white sphere curiously as it stayed for a few moments before exploding.
"M-mister?" Ichigo glanced down at the child in my arms, who could not have been older than three.
"It's all right," Ichigo said, trying to remember how he had talked to Yuzu and Karin when they were young. "Everything is going to be fine. Go hide in that house, okay? And don't come out until you know it's safe, got it?"
The child sniffled and nodded, her eyes wide with fear. Ichigo set her down and gently nudged her in the direction of the house, only staying long enough to make sure she got through the door before darting off in the direction of a larger group of hollows.
Ichigo intervened too late to save a group of young men, but he did get there in time to stop the women they had been trying to protect from getting their bodies smashed to pieces.
None of the hollows were that strong; it was reminiscent of the early days in Karakura Town, when the hollows could be handled by Rukia alone, before Aizen started screwing her life up (and Ichigo's, really). Ichigo cut through the last of the hollows terrorizing the villagers – most of whom that had survived the initial attack were hiding in the buildings that were still standing – and looked around, sensing something was off.
"There is another hollow here."
"Where's the bastard? Hiding ain't right; it's cowardly."
Ichigo stretched out his senses, ignoring the smoke drifting lazily into the sky and blotting out the sun at uneven intervals. After a moment, the substitute Shinigami detected the Reiatsu that had been coming in and out of his range of detection for the past few minutes while he had been dealing with the smaller, weaker hollows. Unlike the others, however, this one was strong, and it felt odd.
"Arrancar," Ichigo said instantly. "Must be one of Aizen's leftovers that fled to the depths of Hueco Mundo; it's strong, but not even close to Espada level yet."
"Maybe the individual that is summoning these hollows is not powerful enough to summon an Espada."
That would be nice, but I'm not going to put any money on it. The last thing I want to deal with is another Grimmjow.
"Che. That wouldn't be so bad."
Ichigo rolled his eyes and ignored the subsequent mental flip-off that Zangetsu gave him before Flash Stepping to the outskirts of the village where felled trees clearly indicated the path the hollows had taken.
The Reiatsu Ichigo felt was definitely that of an arrancar, but for some reason Ichigo couldn't pinpoint its location. No matter how close Ichigo thought he got, the hollow seemed to slip past him and go to a different location, forcing the teen to track the same hollow time and time again with no result.
A scream tore through the air and in a flash Ichigo was back in the village, his instincts allowing him to act and react far more quickly than normal. With ease, Ichigo kicked the latest attacker away from the screaming villager, who was bleeding from what appeared to be a bite in his shoulder that had taken out a chunk of muscle and skin. It was bleeding profusely, but if tended to quickly, the man would survive.
Ichigo switched his attention to the assailant and at once recognized it as the arrancar he had been tracking. It appeared to be male, with a slim – bordering on emaciated – build, frail constitution, and thin black hair that looked like it badly needed a trim.
"Who are you?" Ichigo asked, drawing Zangetsu and leveling it at the arrancar's heart. Or, where its heart would have been. There was nothing but a hole there now.
"My name doesn't matter," the arrancar replied, obtaining surprising volume despite his sickly frame. "What matters is, you have to die!"
He lunged forward with the intention of spearing Ichigo with the dagger he had drawn (fitting, for his small constitution), but Ichigo merely stepped to one side, hitting the arrancar in the back with his free hand to make him lose his balance. He stumbled, but remained standing.
"Answer my question," Ichigo said flatly. "I'm not in the mood to play games with you, arrancar."
"Arrancar?" He turned to face me, his eyes – which had been almost glazed over before – sparkling with sudden clarity. "Ah! You are a Shinigami, then! I must go at you with my full power!"
"No," Ichigo said dryly, "you really don't. It won't make a difference, anyway."
The arrancar shifted into a stance that could only be the one he used to release, so in the split second window before he spoke Ichigo used Shunpo to appear right in front of him and kicked him hard in the stomach, using enough force to make the hollow cough up blood (and was that his spine Ichigo felt on the bottom of his foot?) before he was hurtled into the air, towards the surrounding forests and away from the village.
"Try not to get killed or attacked again while I'm gone," Ichigo suggested to the wide-eyed villagers before he kicked off the ground and followed where he could sense the arrancar. Its - his - Reiatsu was still fluctuating, making it difficult to track him, but all Ichigo needed to do was find where he had hit the ground, and the impact crater was practically a beacon.
When Ichigo landed, the arrancar was already back in his pose, the only indication of Ichigo's kick being a small trickle of blood that dripped from the corner of his mouth.
"Blind, Oscuro!" He proclaimed, after which he was abruptly hidden from view by a massive cloud of smoke.
"Don't breathe it in!"
Heeding his Zanpakutō's words, Ichigo used his Reiatsu to force the gas away from him, though the odd smoke resisted being blown away completely.
So it's not normal smoke . . . is this a side effect of his release?
"Ichigo, can you sense the arrancar?"
After a few seconds of searching, Ichigo came to the frustrating conclusion that no, he could not sense the arrancar.
"Dammit," Ichigo muttered, turning and trying to pick out any shapes in the smoke. Finding nothing, Ichigo jumped into the air, only to discover that the smoke kept going in all directions. It even followed him if he tried to get too far from it. "Is it sentient? It definitely fits his release phrase."
"He is most likely hidden within the smoke."
"So just blow 'im up!"
Can't do that. He might know something and I can't risk letting him getting away.
Ichigo's usual scowl deepened. Stupid Aizen-crafted arrancar. They were just plain irritating.
"Can you just come out?" Ichigo called, descending back to ground level while trusting that he would be fast enough to react to any surprise attacks. "We can get this whole thing over with quickly, and I'll kill you as painlessly as possible when we're done!"
"You kill me?" The arrancar's voice bounced around, never coming from just one place at any given time. "Not a chance! I'll kill you, and then she'll love me! You'll see, Shinigami! You'll effin' see!"
Ichigo blinked, and then he and his Zanpakutō spirits all groaned in unison, though the arrancar could only hear Ichigo's voice.
"Why," The orange-haired teen muttered, only barely stopping himself from rubbing his forehead where he felt a headache coming on. There was age-old exasperation in Ichigo's voice when he next spoke. "Why do I always get the crazy ones?"
A/N Maybe they're just drawn to your personality, Ichigo. Has that ever occurred to you?
Anyway, we've got some action, a little bit of experimentation on my part of what a witch's power could be, and then another hollow attack headed by a very strange arrancar. Who's "she"? Why is the arrancar so interested in having her love him? What's going on there? And what's up with that earlier hollow's soul?
Questions that may or may not be answered later.
Reviews:
Pilatzke: Ichigo isn't going to be a babysitter, but he won't ignore everyone. Blaire will probably appear again, and Death does know that Zangetsu (not the Quincy half) is a hollow. And I don't mind questions, so ask away if you have to!
NightSchool33: No idea.
Crimson Homura: Unofficially, yes, the start is the same as Rift and Rewind. Since there is such a large time jump, however, I didn't think it was prudent to include it. I don't know if there will be another story in this series (though I hope there will be since they're fun to write), but your suggestions sound good.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Either way, I appreciate any and all reviews!
Until next time,
-RoR
Please review.
