Chapter 8: Brutally Hurt

Warning: Gore


It was getting dark and Shunsui had still not reached Urahara's shop but he was not too concerned about that. The night was pleasantly warm and the moon was alight making it the perfect time to go out on an evening stroll. Plus if he got back to Urahara's shop sooner he would just have to endure Hana and Renji giving each other sickly love looks that made him want to rip his eyes out. Shunsui took a left turn and started to walk town a street that was full of bars and clubs. The clubs looked rather shut as it was too early in the evening for any of them to be opened, but the bars were crowded and full of life. Men in dark suits sat in booths drinking expensive looking sake after a long day of work while the younger generation stood around the bar drinking cheap beer. Shunsui was itching to go into the bar and have a drink of sake, however, he was still on patrol. Maybe once he returned from patrol, he could convince Jushiro to go out for a drink. Hell they had been working around the clock recently so a little down time was most probably needed. Yes that is what Shunsui was going to do. Once he got back from his patrol he would give everybody the night off. He would then call Rose and see how her day had been (and to thank her for the erotic photo) before grabbing Jushiro and heading out to the nearest bar. Shunsui did not plan on getting drunk, he just wanted to get pleasantly buzzed so that he could escape the monotony of his mission.

The further down the street he walked, the seedier and crummier the bars and clubs became. One or two strip joints started to appear here and there until it was nothing but adult establishments on the street. Scantily dressed woman were hanging outside of establishments with large neon signs that promised wild vixens or every sort. Some of the women Shunsui saw were wearing clothes that would put even the sauciest of prostitutes back in the Soul Society to shame. There were fewer people down this end of the street and the few that you saw always kept to themselves. Shunsui slowly walked down the street with his spiritual pressure clamped down so as to not harm the locals. Normally if he was in a gigai it would have been done for him, however he had not wanted to wear one while he went of patrol. He was happy that he was invisible to the women on the street as he did not particularly want their attention right now…or ever. There was only one woman he wanted to watch strip her clothes of and perform a show for him and that was Rose. And sadly she was not here.

And the Shunsui saw it, the sky opening up and six hollows emerging out of the darkness that was Hueco Mundo. The six figures landed on top of one of the establishments and looked down at the scene in front of them. By the looks of it they could not sense him. Slowly and Quietly, Shunsui crept up to the building where the hollows were standing on and started to climb it. He knew that it was idiotic to take on all six of them without back up but he knew that if he did not engage them now he would lose a vital opportunity. Besides I knew that reinforcements would arrive as Jushiro and the others would have most likely sensed their presence by now. He just had to delay them until the others arrived. Shunsui jumped onto the roof and landed behind the hollows.

"It seems like we have finally caught you. Must say the six of you have been giving my team and I a run for our money." He said casually while watching in mild amusement as the hollows spun around and faced him in surprise. Shunsui took that moment to examine the six hollows that he had been pursuing for nearly two months. By the looks of it there were four adjuchas and two Vasto Lorde. The first Vasto Lorde had short hair with varying shades of red, orange and yellow which made it look like fire. He was also about two feet smaller than Shunsui and incredible thin. His entire body was covered in white (minus his head and neck) and had red fire marking on it. The Vasto Lorde was also equipped with a whip that seemed to be made of fire. Shunsui knew just by looking at the Vasto Lorde who he was: Fire Lighter. Shunsui also recognized the other Vasto Lorde. She had white wavy hair that reached her waist and her 'skin' seemed unnaturally white. She was wearing what looked like a Kimono with swirling wind patterns on it and had in her left hand a large white fan. This was Wind Slasher and the reason that Shunsui recognised her was that she was infamous in the Gotei 13. She had gained her fame by being able to evade the Shinigami for several decades. Even Shunsui had failed the capture her and he still had a thin scar across his back from where her deadly fan had struck him. She was deadly. Out of the four Adjuchas, Shunsui could only recognize one of them, and that was the one they had been able to identify thanks to the little boys help. The boy's description had been accurate as the adjuchas really did have a face of a shark but the body of a human. Agua Blue looked to be holding a large trident in her hand. The last four Adjuchas were unknown to Shunsui but one of them was brown and looked to be made out of rocks and dirt and held a giant war hammer in his hand. The adjuchas next to him was an electrical blue colour with a giant spear in his hand. And the last hollow wore what looked to be iron armour in his body and a helmet in his head and looked the spitting image of a medieval knight. He was also wielding a large sword.

"Shinigami." Cried out the electric blue hollow.

"Good evening." Replied Shunsui while bowing politely at the hollows. There was a pause.

"What no back-up? Did you really hope to defeat us on your own?" laughed the electric blue hollow.

"Quiet Shocker!" Snapped Wind Slasher, "That is a Taicho class Shinigami and must not be underestimated. Everyone stay on your guard!"

Shunsui drew his two swords and crouched down into a fighting stance. It was foolish of him to take on these hollows without any back up. He could take on the adjuchas easily but the two Vasto Lorde were going to be a problem. He just had to keep them distracted until the others arrived.

"I take it we can't solve this problem peacefully?" he asked

"No. let's take him down!" cried Shocker before charging towards Shunsui. He had been expected the Adjuchas's attack. Out of all the gathered hollows, Shocker was the most agitated and hot headed so it had been easy to guess that he would be the first to strike. Shunsui dodged and ducked out of the way of giant spear being thrusted at him. The hollow's attacks were predictable and elementary. If Shunsui was to venture a guess he would say that this hollow was the weakest out of them all.

"You know you are supposed to be aiming for the Taicho." Replied the Iron clad hollow in a lazy tone.

"SHUT UP Iron armour!" Shouted Shocker, while turning around and facing the iron clad hollow. Big mistake. Shunsui saw and opening and shot forwards and managed to slash Shocker right shoulder. The hollow howled in agony and gripped his shoulder as dark blood started to flow from the wound.

"Stay focused!" snapped Wind Slasher

Shocker made a swipe at Shunsui with his spear but missed. Shunsui darted back and hopped onto a large water dank that was located on the roof. He had been lucky that the hollows had not decided to attack him together. If they came at him one by one then he could probably defeat them, or at least most of them before the rest of his team turned up. It was interesting that the hollows did not attack him together. Although these hollows fought in a group they showed no unity which led Shunsui to believe that these hollows, had circumstances been different, would never have formed a group to begin with. So the question was: who was keeping this band of misfit hollows together? The most likely answer was that the unknown reiatsu was keeping them together.

"Why are you following the unknown reiatsu?" asked Shunsui.

"You mean you don't know?" sneered Fire Lighter.

"If I knew then why would I be asking you?"

"Master was right, these Shinigami really do know nothing." Stated Wind Slasher

"Master…you mean the unknown reiatsu?" questioned Shunsui.

"Just like I said. These Shinigami know nothing."

"Enough talking. Let's destroy him!" cried out Shocker, before crouching down and blasting a cero. Shunsui saw the cero coming and shunpooed out of the way. "Stop running!" shouted the hollow before firing another cero with only resulted in blowing up the water dank. Ice cold water erupted from the tank and spilt down over the side of the building and down onto the street below. Shunsui could hear shout and screams coming from the street below as the prostitutes and seedy men, and women, ran for cover. He needed to eliminate this hollow quickly as his brash attacks were starting to become very dangerous. Shunsui jumped and raised his two sword over his head with the intention of attacking Shocker from the air. The hollow saw his approach and raised his spear up over his head in order to deflect the upcoming attack. The sound of metal hitting metal resonated across the night sky. Shunsui pushed down, trying to force the hollow to concede to him. Shocker started to summon a cero and then blasted it at the Shinigami point blank. Shunsui jumped out of the way and felt the cero just touching the tips of his sandals. If he had not been a Taicho and very good at Shunpo the cero would have most likely hit him. That was close…maybe even too close. He had to stay focused. Shunsui frowned slightly before lunging forwards again. Again and again the sound of metal hitting metal resonated around the night sky as both Shinigami and hollow collided over and over again. After a while Shocker paused to catch his breath. He was panting deeply and gripping his spear tightly while Shunsui, on the other hand, merely pushed the sweat out of his eyes, his breathing totally normal. He had more stamina than the hollow and would most likely outlast him in this sword fight.

"Getting tired Shocker?" teased Iron armour. "You know if you are I would gladly step in and finish this Shinigami off for you."

"Shut up. I can destroy this worthless Shinigami on my own!" the hollow replied before summoning another cero and firing it. Shunsui saw an opening and shot forwards. In one strike with deadly precision he slashed the hollow across the chest, spraying blood everywhere. Shocker looked down as if he could not believe what had just happened to him. ¨

"Wha-what…how…who?" He gasped.

"The name is Shunsui Kyoraku, Taicho of the eighth division." Replied Shunsui while watching the hollow slowly start to disintegrate. There was uttermost silence after Shocker had been defeated. The hollows were either staring at Shunsui in shock or in anger. That Bastard Shinigami had just defeated one of their own!

"You-you-BASTARD!" Shouted the iron clad hollow while pointing at Shunsui. "You-you killed him. You killed him. I'm-I'm going to DESTROY YOU!" The hollow crouched down with the intension of charging forwards.

"Hold it!" Shouted Fire Lighter. Iron Armour stopped in his tracks and turned around to face the Vasto Lorde. "We seemed to have underestimated this Taicho. We can't simply attack him one at the time and hope that he simply collapses with exhaustion. He has shown us that he can outlast us in a sword fight. We need to attack him together, I mean we do outnumber him."

"I'm surprised we did not do that before." Sighed Wind Slasher.

"I was going to suggest it before but then that idiot Shocker went ahead and attacked the Taicho without thinking of a strategy beforehand. And quite frankly I am glade that he is dead, that bastard was starting to annoy me." Replied Fire Lighter. "Now shall we take down this Taicho before his friends turn up? And this time we will take him together. Shunsui gulped when he saw all five of the remaining hollows crouch down. Damn it, he was outnumbered. All he had to do was hold them off and in order to do that he had to up his game. Shunsui unleased his shikai.


The moment Ukitake felt his best friend's reiatsu explode he started to increase the pace of his shunpo. He had been in Urahara's shop when he had felt the hollows reappear, but sadly it had taken a long time to locate them on the map. Finally, after a bit of waiting around they had been able to locate the Hollows and within seconds they were on their way towards them. Of course Ukitake had long since sensed his friend's presence fighting the hollows but he knew that Shunsui could hold his own for a bit. Because the unknown reiatsu had not made a mysterious appearance yet, the entire team sped off to where Shunsui was fighting a hollows. There had been a general sense of happiness when Ukitake and the rest had felt the first hollow fall. However, their happiness faded when they sensed Shunsui unleash his Shikai. Whatever was going on over there was bad. Ukitake grit his teeth and continued to shunpo forwards.


Maybe taking on all these hollows on his own had been a bad idea. The first hollow, Shocker, had been easy to kill because he had was weak, but also the other five hollows had stayed back making the task at hand a lot easier. Now that Shunsui was fighting all of them at the same time everything was proving to be a lot more difficult. However, he was putting up a good fight. Agua Blue suddenly appeared in front of him and raised her trident. The sound of metal hitting metal filled the night sky as Shunsui lifted his short sword up to protect himself from the trident. Out of the corner of his eye he could see a huge metal sword swinging through the air. As quick as a flash, Shunsui raised his other sword and blocked the attack. The two adjuchas were pushing down hard on their weapons drying to force the Shinigami to concede.

"Stop trying to fight back Shinigami. Even a Taicho cannot win a battle of five against one." Said Agua Blue

"Forgive me for trying." Panted Shunsui. Damn it where was the back up? If Ukitake had not been able to detect the hollows before I most certainly could now that he had released his shikai.

"You are wide open." Shouted a voice behind him. He turned his head and saw Fire Lighter appear behind him and crack his fire wipe across his back. Shunsui let out a groan of agony before pushing off the two adjuchas's weapons and shunpooing away. He needed to put distance between them and so he shunpooed to the opposite building. Shunsui was panting deeply, his long brown hair was starting to come out of its hair tie and was sticking to his sweaty face. His back was aching as the burn scorched his skin and made it feel like it was on fire. The hollows lined up on the building facing him and sneered. Damn! They knew that he was outnumber and were gloating. Each one of the hollows had had a go at him and every single one of them had managed to land a hit. Of course that was to be expected as the odds were not in his favour. Blood slowly trickled down Shunsui's brow from a deep gash curtesy of Agua Blue. Iron Armour was responsible for the large gash running down his left thigh while the rock covered Adjuchas had managed to break on of two of his ribs by punching him in the chest. And lastly there were a few light cuts all over his body from Wind Slasher's fans and now a terrible burn across his back from Fire Lighter. Even in his Shikai, Shunsui was outmatched. Maybe if he had access to all of his power he might be able to defeat these hollows before they kill him.

While still looking at the hollows, he fished around in his pocket and pulled out his soul pager. "Soul Society this is Eighth Division Taicho, Shunsui Kyoraku requesting that Gentei Kaijo be lifted."

There was a crackling of static. "Eight Division Taicho your request has been taken into account. This might take a few minutes."

"What?!" Shouted Shunsui. "I need it right now!" He never normally shouted but right now he was annoyed.

"I am sorry Taicho but it takes time." Replied the rather startled Shinigami on the other end of the line. It was very rare for the Taicho of the Eighth Division to get angry and shout.

"I thought I said that you should stay focused." Hissed a voice in Shunsui's ear. He spun around only to be hit by a powerful gush of wind. In his anger he had failed to notice that Wind Slasher had dashed forwards and managed to get behind him. Shunsui flew through the air and smashed into the opposite building. He gasped as he hit the building and felt his burn protest loudly.

"Kyoraku Taicho…come in Kyoraku Taicho!" came the voice of the Shinigami on the other end of the phone.

Before Shunsui could even catch his breath he saw Fire Lighter appear right in front of him and punch him right in the stomach. Whatever precious breath he had left in his stomach was brutally forced out of him, along with several drops of blood. Over and over again Fire maker punched Shunsui in the stomach drawing more and more blood. However, he was not going to take all of this lying down. Shunsui swung his short sword and felt the satisfying feeling of it making contact with flesh. Fire Lighter, gasped when he felt metal scrap across his chest, spraying blood everywhere.

Shunsui did not even pause as he lifted his long sword. "Iro oni: White." Fire Lighter shouted in agony as Katen Kyokotsu cut right through his right arm, slicing it completely off. Blood erupted from what was left of his arm and sprayed across Shunsui's robes, soaking a good portion of it. There was absolute silence between the Shinigami and hollows for a second time as both sides tried to assimilate what had just happened. Shunsui used this moment of silence to shunpo away from Fire Lighter. The Cero blast had come out of nowhere. Shunsui gasped in pain when he felt his body blasted through the sky only to land painfully on the hard c road down below, sending vast amounts of concrete and rubble everywhere. And then he felt it, the feeling of his full power returning to him. Looks like Gentei Kaijo had been removed. But his body felt weak and battered so how much difference his new powers were going to be was questionable. Slowly, Shunsui got back to his feet and looked up at the four hollows circling above him. Wind Slasher was staring down at his with red hot anger in her eyes. Fire maker was holding what was left of his right arm while cursing loudly at the same time. And that left the last two were smiling. Why were they smiling?…WAIT FOUR HOLLOWS? WHERE WAS THE FITH? Shunsui looked around but he was too late. The giant earth coloured hollows grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up in the air before smashing his body back down onto the ground. Shunsui shouted in pain as he collided painfully with the hard concrete ground.

"Now hurry up and die Shinigami." Said the earth coloured Hollow before throwing Shunsui up into the area and striking him in the back with his Warhammer like he was a ball in a game of baseball. Shunsui felt the heavy hammer hit his spine, a sudden agonizing burst of pain before it all ended. His body collided with the ground but he felt nothing. And slowly the world around him started to blacken. Just before the world went totally black, Shunsui saw Rose's face. She was laughing, her hair thrown back while the summer sun glimmered off her brown hair. She was absolutely beautiful.

"You complete idiots!" shouted a voice. The five remaining hollows turned around and faced a figure wearing a long purple robes with long black hair and a gold mask on her face. "I told you to keep him alive and now you go ahead and kill him! Do you have any idea what you have done?!" screamed the figure.

"M-ma'am." Stuttered the hollows.

"Enough. You were supposed to cause a distraction and NOT kill the Shinigami in the process."

"But he killed Shocker."

"Enough! I can feel the other Shinigami approaching so we had better retreat. But mark my word you will all be punished for this!" Screamed the Masked woman before opening a gargantuan and disappearing into the blackness. The Five hollows glared at each other before following their leader back into Hueco Mundo.


"There he is!" cried out Lisa while pointing at the ground. Ukitake looked down and saw the mangled, blood covered body of Shunsui lying in the middle of the destroyed street.

"Rukia I want you to go and fetch Orihime. By the looks of it we will be needing her healing skills." Order Ukitake before moving to stand next to his friend's broken body. By the looks of it the hollows had really done a number on him.

"Renji, Ichigo and Lisa I want you three to patrol the area and see if there are any clues lying around. Hana you are the only one here who as a high level of healing Kido. Ca you see what you can do for Shunsui." order Ukitake in a hard tone. Whoever did this to his friend was going to pay. Damn it! Shunsui can't die now. He watched as Hana sank down next to his friend and pick up his limb hand in order to search for a pulse. There was a pause…a long pause…maybe even too long.

Hana looked up at Ukitake with fear in her eyes. "I-I can't find a pulse." She cried out.

"What?"

"I-I think he is dead Taicho…I-I can't find a pulse." Jushiro stared down at his best friend's mangled body and cursed loudly. Damn! if only they had been a few minutes earlier. Damn, Damn, DAMN!


Back in the Soul Society Rose frowned down at her phone. That was the second time her call to Shunsui had gone straight to voice mail.


Poor Shunsui...and poor Rose.