Bleach: Dark Prophecies
Chapter 9: Bring them Twilight, the Prowess of Malice!
20 Minutes ago, Karakura Town's Karakura Highschool, Temporarily Closed
Tatsuki Arisawa had gotten into her Karate Gi, and was about to start her practice for the upcoming tournament being held within the coming Winter. However, her plans changed, as she was gazing at the sight of the near demolished school. She was awestruck at how much trouble could occur after nearly 2 years of peace since that…incident with Ichigo's Soul Reaper business. She thought he moved on, regardless of how lately he's been restless and distracted, as if gazing off in the horizon expecting something to appear when there was nothing to begin with. Then…she learned that the entire gymnasium was, as the official report goes, 'spontaneously combusted' from an unknown source. The ground itself was already glassed from whatever super heat had incinerated her fellow school's gymnasium.
But as Tatsuki snuck around the Caution tape, she noticed faint residual Spiritual Pressures of the Visoreds, the Hollowified soldiers Ichigo explained that were former Soul Reapers who gained the abilities of Hollows like himself. She also found a tattered piece of cloth near a telephone pole that belonged to Uryu, probably from his Quincy cloak. She actually had to scale the pole just to retrieve it, which any other student would've found a difficult task, but due to her extreme prowess in Martial Arts, she's become well-balanced and agile individual.
She also noticed the area around the baseball field had impact craters and a blackened ground area, surrounded by five holes forming a pentagram shape. She noticed this was a Quincy Technique, and saw that it was used, but found that there was no body, meaning it failed.
She growled as she stomped away from the closed school. "IDIOT! Where am I supposed to practice if he causes trouble just when I don't need it?" She yelled out, causing a few passerby students of hers that were just as miffed about the destruction of the gymnasium as she was, to yelp and scatter in response to her brimming wrath. She had a piece of her mind to go straight to Ichigo's house and wring his neck for causing this, regardless if he was the culprit in it or not. Quite frankly, she didn't give a damn.
"Hey! Tatsuki-chaaaaan!" Came a whiny voice from another direction, halting her impending wrath felt trail towards Ichigo's house.
"K-Keigo?" She recognized her classmate anywhere, and also seeing him running to him in a melodramatic fashion, tears abundantly flowing like waterfalls from his eyes, his eyes shut tight enough to form a seal from his vision, and his strides long and exaggerated as he ran towards her.
Once he leapt towards her bodily she responded as Tatsuki would in any situation a crazed boy would leap at her. By planting a foot into the incoming boy's face, and slamming him down on the ground.
"OWIE! Tatsuki why?" He cried out, holding his face and squirming on the ground, his tears gathered into a wet puddle around his head.
"Tch! You should've known better than jump at me like that. Even after the years of knowing me, you still do it. Unbelievable!" She caressed her temples, frustrated she had to deal with the theatrical boy as well as the headache Ichigo has caused for her yet again.
"I see your frustration being vented on poor Asano-Chan," Mizuiro said casually as he approached from the general direction the hasty emotionally disturbed boy was headed.
"Hey! I told you not to call me that anymore, Mizuiro!" Keigo wailed at him, standing up abruptly and waving his arms at him as he got within inches of his face.
"What're you guys doing here?" Tatsuki asked curiously, knowing that a formal announcement was given over both phone lines and the E-Mails, but she wasn't told of the damage done directly the gym. Hence her frustration or discouragement of learning its fate when she arrived.
"We came because we thought to check out the school. It seemed strange that the school was suddenly cancelled on the eve of Finals approaching within a month or two," Mizuiro said casually, but with a serious note as he turned his head towards the large rubble heap where the gym use to stand.
"But you think it was more than that?" Tatsuki asked, crossing her arms, knowing that Mizuiro was a smart boy, and ever since the Winter War two years ago, she knew he was probably the smartest one of the bunch that hung around Ichigo.
"Well, with the things we know about this town, this gym probably didn't 'Spontaneously Combust,' like they're trying to explain to the student body. This looks more of a eruption that came from," Mizuiro pointed to the top where the roof of the gym used to be, "up above, and fired skywards as well."
"What kind of explosion was that?" Keigo asked once he recovered, knowing the business they were speaking of was serious.
"It seems to be some kind of energy…like Spiritual Energy, the thing Ichigo told us about," Mizuiro cupped his chin in thought, looking at the ruined building analytically, but not too seriously, his stance still as casual as always.
"It…feels familiar," Tatsuki said as she approached the edge of the rubble where the wall of the gym used to be. Keigo became flabbergasted at what he knew she was about to do, but Mizuiro, held him back with a hand while raising a finger to his lips, ushering him to be quiet. Tatsuki continued her tantalizingly slow walk, memories began to flash in her mind as the energy became almost eerily familiar.
"Orihime!" She felt herself yelling as she was flung helplessly around by the practically invisible hollow, to soon be Orihime's horror, her own brother. Tatsuki felt her body cut in her shoulder from a long talon of the Hollow, feeling helpless, pathetic, scared. Not for all her strength in Martial Arts she could stop this threat.
She then felt that moment where she flung herself at the possessed students, quickly dispatching them with swift kicks and punches, knocking them all unconscious or incapacitated. But even then, as she resisted the control of the Hollow she felt weak, useless in the end.
She felt herself nearly drained of all energy as the large piggish Arrancar sucked up the souls of the weak around her, leaving her barely able to breathe, let alone stay conscious. She felt nearly utterly defeated until Orihime stood in to save her sorry a**. She barely recalled the rest, even as she saw the black cloaked figure of Ichigo saving both the mutilated Chad, and petrified Orihime.
She blamed herself for not being able to beat out the reason why Ichigo was burdened with a secret that was too dangerous for her to be shared with. She wondered what her friendship was for, but it was only the fact that she was stronger than Ichigo that made her a reliable friend and companion to Ichigo, teaching him how to fight and survive.
Now…she's powerless, and this Pressure definitely had Ichigo's fire inside it, that rough violent and determined focus, yet this was wild and dark at the same time. Its almost as if…
"-Tatsuki! Look at the sky!" Suddenly broken from her reverie by Keigo's panicked voice, she lost focus of a black spark of residual Spiritual Power snaking onto her hands, and extended a low current onto her. But the sight in the sky was much more disturbing, as she saw what looked like a cloud of white and black falling towards Karakura Town like a hail of shooting stars.
"Get down!" She said as one of the pale fiery objects came down almost crushing the three, emitting a large shockwave in its wake, blasting the ground below it into burning rubble, cracking the street for 10 meters around it.
What came out of the crater, was something that sent chills down Tatsuki's spine and bones. A Blonde haired man with a pale white cloak draped around him casually, one side of his body was visible, a bare pale chest with a crest of unknown make ontop of where his heart should be, and a long white glove about elbow length on his left hand, and a black feather pauldron on his left shoulder, and below a black feather laced metal boot, almost medieval in appearance, with regular white hakama about his waist and legs.
The unknown invader bore a average lined face, a medium profound nose, and razor edged brows, perfectly suiting his blazing red irises, and well built jaw line, with a sinister smile of hideous glee.
He observed them with almost immediate interest, walking heavy footsteps with ease, almost as if his feet were weightless and he's been walking like this for ages. He cocked his head at an angle as he wrapped his gloved left hand around his chin, making clucking sounds with his tongue,"Well well…what have we here? First place I check where we felt the famed, Ichigo Kurosaki's Spiritual Pressure and Power bursting at magnanimous proportions, I became inspired to find him first. But…instead I find a group of peculiar humans with Spiritual Potential, some more than others I have felt than these distasteful pitiful excuses of life on this backwater town of mortals. I wonder,"he began to draw more distance, Tatsuki and the others were motionless, this man's evil was practically boiling them alive inside, making their legs turn to butter, and his Spiritual Pressure was like a Hollow's yet, a entirely different thing as well. His hand reached for Tatsuki's motionless, cold sweating, eye twitching, face, as he whispered, "what I could learn, by extracting your brain…and devouring it could tell me about you."
Tatsuki was trying to tell her legs to move, her head, arms, anything to stop this nightmare from killing her. Then, a blinding flash flew past her sight, aiming for the glove of the Hanta reaching for her face, causing him to retreat five steps through a simple backwards hop, now regarding the new threat.
"Well well! If it isn't one of the Soul Hunters!" He yelled out in a theatric tone, placing his slightly burned white glove to give him a mock salute to the now apparent figure, standing erect and tall on a lamp post 50 meters away from them, a smoking revolver-looking Kido gun was shown as the cause of the blinding flash, giving Tatsuki and her friends spots in their vision.
Keigo questioned quietly, "S-Soul Hunter? Is that a kind of Soul Reaper?"
Mizuiro cusped his chin with his right hand, supporting it with his right, acting unnervingly calm during this plight, saying, "He doesn't bear the robes of the Soul Reapers we've seen. A Black Ops perhaps, if they have those anyways? A splinter group?"
Tatsuki growled out in a low voice, "It doesn't matter! We have to get you two out of here!"
Keigo began to protest as Tatsuki began pushing them towards the opposite direction of the rubble and school, away from the 'Soul Hunter' and the Hanta, hoping that the enemy was distracted enough by the new arrival to focus on them.
Unfortunately, a large assortment of four legged nightmares blocked their path as suddenly the previously fled and emptied school parking lot was now filled with nearly a dozen white robed Hantas of all different shapes and sizes, and two dozen Hellhounds, all drooling blood and growling hideous low sounds, unheard to the three humans' ears.
"I'm sorry, humans, but I cannot allow you to leave alive. Not while my Hellhounds hunger for souls so gluttonously," the neatly combed blonde haired man said, turning around, with a smile on his face, winking at Tatsuki with a hungry dangerous glint in his eyes, before turning back to regard the stationary Soul Hunter, now counting inwardly the number of enemies and the best course of action that allowed the three Karakura residents to leave unharmed.
Keigo was practically on the verges of crying, feeling the menace of their intent, and concluded his death was going to happen, and his hell on earth had come for him. Even calm Mizuiro, was tense, cold sweating, and calculating the slim odds of them leaving alive without support or aide. Tatsuki was cold sweating, shaking, but took three steps forward, and went into a fighting stance, with a fist stretched outwards and her other hand near her side, her right side in front with her left held back.
"T-Tatsuki?" Keigo uttered, totally baffled why she would even think of fighting some threat that none of them could handle.
"I can't just stand here and be devoured by these…monsters! I will not cower this time! I will remain strong, just as I always should be!" Tatsuki shouted, making Mizuiro stare wide eyed at her and Keigo stop his whimpering, drawing his gaze upon her as well, wondering what was going through her head.
Tatsuki didn't know what she had planned or if she had even a chance to win against these suicidal odds, but she was inclined to not back down, not after she had protected, toughened, and bonded with a guy like Ichigo. 'I will not let myself be his damsel in distress! Not anymore!' Tatsuki said inwardly, as the first enemy came towards her, a large gore salivating Hellhound leapt towards her with mouth opened wide.
As it drew near, a beam of yellow energy snaked dangerously close to her head, and entered the maw of the beast, causing it to convulse in mid-air, leaving it less dangerous for Tatsuki. Not bothering to hesitate, she grabbed the large mouth of the beast, twirling her feet around and throwing over her shoulder, bloodying her jacket from the blood ushering from its convulsing mouth and threw it towards the school with a mighty bone-snapping crash. The Hellhound twitched as its dying form bled out of its eyes and mouth grotesquely, before breathing its last.
One of the Hanta, a smooth black haired one with his left eye covered by silky bangs, commented with a keen right eye, "She's good. I guess humans are skilled in combat as they say. It's a wonder how the Soul Hunters were ever established without them."
"They still needed blasted Soul Reapers to do it though! C'mon! Let's kill this girly before she gets anymore lucky!" Said another one, having a large Mohawk of yellow color and a ratty cloak, lifting up a large claymore with bone knit designs in the pommel and guard, before leaping at her, throwing is weapon downwards to Tatsuki's head.
Tatsuki smiled as he approached, deftly twisting around and out of the way of the huge weapon before back flipping in the air, as a mighty crash of debris flew in the weapon's wake before she landed back down, saying, "You think you can hit me with that huge thing? I'm surprised you can use it one handed like that. You guys don't happen to be Arrancars, are you?"
All of the Hantas suddenly glared at Tatsuki with an utter hatred. Their eyes filled with rage and their bodies tensed, all but the smooth silky black haired Hanta who simply tsked at her response.
The Mohawk hanta then growled leaping at her with his claymore wrenching from the ground, kicking up concrete and asphalt as it went before swiping at her horizontally where her legs would be, "HOW DARE YOU CALL US BY THAT SECOND RATE TERM! We've been cleansed of Aizen's experiments, and transcending into something far beyond Hollow! You'll die for those words, human!"
Tatsuki then executed a perfect back flip landing a few paces from where she was standing, before sliding up to the Hanta with grace and speed underestimated by the Hanta, striking a powerful 3 hit jab to his throat, nose and left eye, making him sputter as he backed up.
"Wh-What the he-" he began to say before a leaping roundhouse kick planted onto his chest sent him reeling backwards, crashing into several Hellhounds, kicking up more of the parking lot and causing a large crash.
As the man growled, tossing the beasts aside, flurries of yellow light flew by him into the Hanta's throats and maws, causing them to die painfully beside him, the Soul Hunter aiming his Kido gun with steam rising from the end of the barrel, having barely moved at all.
"Why…you…fucking little dipshit!" Yelled out the Hanta, grabbing his weapon as he clambered up off the ground where he made a large indentation and drag across the parking lot.
"Don't be an idiot," the smooth talking, yet bored looking Hanta said, as he walked across, the other compliment of Hantas stood their ground, not moving an inch until directed, "he already has an opponent."
The Soul Hunter, Ryo, suddenly flinched, as the blonde Hanta was now behind him, launching a kick towards his head, barely intercepted by his sword wielding forearm, launching him across the air towards the ground below, his feet clashing mightily onto it.
The Blonde man held his kicking pose before hopping down from the air next to the light post, gracefully landed with a slight clack, waving his hands at him before he spoke, "My my…you are fast, for sure. I haven't met many who could dodge my hand to hand strikes so swiftly and correctly. You truly are something, Soul Hunter."
"You know nothing of me…or what I'm capable of," he said in a dark liquid voice, Tatsuki surmises its due to that strange cloak he was wearing that obscured his face and body.
"That cloak hides your Spiritual Pressure well. Whatever you are, Soul Hunter, will be nothing more than a interesting specimen to take back to my lab," he said with a manic smile, pointing at him before snapping his forefinger with his thumb, 3 Hantas appeared around him.
"Please, sever his limbs, gentlemen," he said with a half lidded look of satisfaction, knowing he would watch yet another enemy fall before his hands.
As the Hantas raised their weapons, Ryo crouched down, before shimmering out of view, much to the Hantas' surprise, reappearing above them, uttering lowly as he aimed his revolver Kido gun, "Horin," then a large Kido orange electric rope tied around the 3 Hantas together, causing them to grunt and shout in despair. It was too late as he fell upon them, making a large arc with his Dai-katana, cutting all 3 of their heads off, leaving their bodies spurting blood as their tied bodies fell the ground inert and limp, twitching.
The Blonde Hanta clapped, chuckling, "Well done and executed, Soul Hunter. You're movement seems off, but you definitely fight like a Soul Reaper. More analyzing is needed," he snapped his fingers again, causing 5 other Hantas appear, each of them spread out in a scattered line, forming a 'W' formation.
As they all began to draw began their Zanpakuto when Ryo suddenly said in a disgusted tone, "Amateurs," rushing at them with vast speed, his cloak flapping around like a flag, his feet unseen from the blurring motion he created, as he slashed his Zanpakuto across the middle Hanta's legs, severing them in half. Not even before he registered this, he used his free hand to grab face, flipping over him and double side-kicking the other two Hantas aside, before violently gouging out his eyes, landing before the other two Hantas, both of them hesitating at the decisive speed and lethal blows he pulled off on their comrades.
That was all the time Ryo needed, as he slashed down viciously at the Hanta's leg on his left, causing him to buckle before he slashed his throat again, then pointed his Kido revolver at the last Hanta's face, uttering lowly, "Byakurai," a bright blue lightning streak exited the barrel and through the other side of the Hanta's head, giving a clean burned hole to display to the other side before he fell to the ground limply, his dead body twitching slightly from the last blow, but its life was gone.
The Blonde Hanta began to laugh hysterically, his voice sending chills down Tatsuki's spine as she figured some twisted part of him enjoyed seeing his subordinates cut down so elegantly by the skilled 'Soul Reaper'.
He then took a few precise steps towards the Blonde Hanta, saying lowly, "Entertained enough, Demon Spawn?"
That just made the Hanta giggle, saying with tears bordering his eyes from his hysteria earlier, whipping out a handkerchief from his sleeve to wipe them up as he said matter-of-factly, "Yes yes, quite so. I definitely have a better idea on 'what' you are. It really never mattered if you called yourself 'human', Soul 'Hunter' or Soul 'Reaper'. Now that I see that you're nothing like the other three I mentioned, you are something else…much more primal and brutal, like a trained predator told how to use weapons instead of his hands," he gestured to his own gloved hands, before smiling at them, flexing them experimentally before raising his own dark eyes back up to the Soul Hunter.
"But now, play time, is definitely over. Allow me to introduce myself to you, Soul 'Hunter'," he said as he bowed dramatically, letting his bangs fall over his eyes as he did so, holding his chest with his left while outstretching his right to the side, "I am Asar Santiago, but you may refer to me as Inquisitor 13," he then raised his gloves to be shown as he was still bowed, his eyes shined darkly as the Roman numerals for ten with a 'X' on his right hand, and the number three represented by a 'III' on his left.
Red energy crackled in between the gloves, as he chuckled, his Spiritual Pressure still hidden, but the visibility of Spiritual energy danced between his palms, right as the entire town became invaded of Hantas, and right before a few moments when Senna leapt out the window into the fray, to fight the very nightmare that stands before all of Karakura Town. Hell has made its first move and is now in the World of the Living!
World of the Living, Karakura Town, the Street block of the Kurosaki Household
Now…
"Bring them to Twilight, Mirokumaru!" Senna shouted in reverence and force, her Zanpakuto elongated in a glow of yellow light, swirls of wind began to flow all around her as she was picked up 10 meters into the air, the wind whistling around the ground below made Malice's cloak flutter like a flag, but his face was merely stating his inner emotions: a mixture of malicious glee, and indifference to her release of her Zanpakuto.
"This doesn't change anything, Senna!" Malice roared, a face of pure insanity written in his features, his hands and sword held aloft, as if nothing could touch him, "you haven't changed, nor has your Zanpakuto! I will crush you like a ant this time, you hear me? This time I will-" his eyes suddenly widen as a twister was elongated in a zig-zag formation from her Zanpakuto, barreling right towards him, which he countered with a strike of his own weapon, distorting the energy before it causing the wind to dissipate, but the force of her attack still pressed him across the ground, his feet grinding into the concrete below his sandals' soles.
Senna's face was solemn, her eyes passive and she reserved her emotions and feelings for later for now, she had to battle a foe she knew she should not take lightly, especially when fighting him alone.
She then twisted her Zanpakuto along her hand again, the twister danced away from Malice's blade and around him before rearing up and diving into his back, catapulting him across the street below her and into a few parked cars along the street, causing a massive explosion behind her before she twirled her Zanpakuto back upright, turning around to 'stand' before her handiwork as she narrowed her eyes where she saw her opponent land, now a burning pile of metal and concrete.
The rubble laid still, the fire crackled from the smell of ozone and burning oil, and there was no visible movement within it, giving the impression to Senna that Malice is stunned for now, allowing her to initialize Flash Step from her location towards Uryu's, dropping down to her hands and knees and lifted the rubble off his body, only to see a Quincy symbol of a metal shield around Uryu's chest, causing her to be somewhat baffled before it glowed blue and dissipated away, allowing Uryu to open an eye with a smirk on his face.
Uryu had seemed to pull off a silent Ginto spell to protect his vital organs from any damage after the shockwave initiated from Malice's blow, protecting him from the fall and impact into the underground passage.
"Come to check on me? My, how sweet of you, hehe!" Uryu snickered at her, making her growl before hammer fisting his head, making him glare at her before he struggled to his feet, his Quincy uniform dirtied from the sewer water and mud, and a trickle of blood from where his left arm had been wedged in some debris.
"How bad is it?" Senna asked with concern, grabbing his arm, but Uryu remained stoic and unfazed by her manhandling.
"My body already has issued painkillers to it, and from what I could tell, it seems that its only cut and bruised," Uryu answered nonchalantly as he nodded to the surface, letting Senna know that he'd rather talk on the surface than below ground in the dank smelling sewer.
Once on the surface, Uryu also mentioned forthright, "But you already knew that, didn't you?"
Senna widened her eyes, and looked over at him with surprise, about to say something before Uryu raised a hand to her mouth, saying, "For now, its not important. However, I will want a full explanation why you have Intel on all of the past events and personal bios of all of Ichigo's exploits, battles, and companions. Everything," he then stepped forward, his eyes meeting hers with a deadly promise, as he asked, "do I make myself clear, Senna?"
Senna gulped, and simply nodded under his cold stare, about to say something when a massive blast of Spiritual Pressure erupted from the rubble area where Malice resided, showing it was clearly his own. It coursed and rippled in the air, Senna felt its hunger and anger, as if the air itself was trying to constrict her, and Uryu could feel the same. Malice's body was at the center of a maelstrom of crimson Spiritual energy spiraling upwards before piercing up into the sky, letting all know that he was done playing around.
"Such massive Spiritual Pressure! It doesn't feel anything like the Hollows or Espada I've fought before!" Uryu shouted about the roar of the chaotic energy that was being released.
"You shouldn't have! This is augmented and merged Spiritual Pressure of two different species, like that of the merging of Hollow and Soul Reaper!" Senna shouted back, giving him information so incredible he couldn't have been able to understand at that point at first, but then asked the real question edging into his mind immediately afterwards.
"What two species are bound together? What is a Hanta?" Uryu asked loudly, until the roar suddenly ended, and Malice showed a wide manic grin, his eyes gleaming red and his sword rattled in his quaking grip.
"You know something…you are different today, Senna. In fact, you actually might be fun to play around with, right before I hear your scream when I peel your flesh right off your bones," he answered darkly, raising up his Zanpakuto before slicing the air in front of him, a air rippling shockwave came barreling before the two of them, intending on ripping them apart.
"Bar the way, lock the gates, become my unbreakable foundation," Uryu uttered lowly, and as the beginning of the shockwave came upon them, making sure he grabbed a firm grip on Senna's sleeve, as a glowing Ginto capsule came open before his right hand, before he finished chanting, "Iron Spire Fortress!" within that moment, the glowing energy of the Ginto capsule expanded around them before covering the entirety of their bodies before spiraling upwards into a gray colored German spire design, completely halting the impact of the massive shockwave, destroying the roadside beside them for a good distance.
Malice squinted his eyes at the dust he kicked up, and suddenly saw the spire, growling, shouting at them, "You cowards! Come out here now!"
"Interesting," Uryu said within the column foundation, his hand pressed against the inner wall of the spire, with Senna pressed tightly and uncomfortably against his side, only able to hear the muttered screams of the now pissed Hanta.
"You idiot! What the hell were you thinking? We could've died from that-"
"We should've died from what I've witnessed his abilities and understand from what you told me his Zanpakuto's powers work," Uryu said, interrupting her with a confident if not equally perplexed face as he looked up and down the surface, saying lowly, "not a scratch. Its almost as if someone tried to punch it with raw power than actual Spiritual Pressure discharge. Is that all it is?"
"What are you saying? Are you saying your Quincy spell did something that my Kido gun couldn't?" Senna asked exasperatedly, her brow knit in a frown, not quite sure his understanding was exactly correct.
"Actually, from what I've gathered about your 'Kido' gun, is that your weapon derives not off of the Spiritual Pressure like Soul Reapers do, but instead, runs off of energy cells comprised of gathered Spiritual Particles like my Ginto does when Quincy initialize our own spells, right?" he asked with a upraised brow, and a press of his glasses against the bridge of his nose, suppressing the urge to show off a smug grin.
Senna could only grit her teeth for a moment on how he found out, and just assumed he was a analytical bastard, crossing her arms before looking away from him with a exasperated sigh, "Yes, that's exactly right. The process is more complex and cannot be simply done, so other than that, you are correct. What about it?"
Uryu then scratched the Spiritually constructed column that that stood before him, scratching its foundation with a few blue sparks exited his nails, before he rubbed them together, "I'm saying, that our two similar spells are the only thing that his Zanpakuto cannot dissipate or break apart. It can destroy both matter and Spiritual Pressure based abilities, like my Quincy arrows or Chad's El Directo because it comes from our own Spiritual Pressure, not artificial Spiritual Energy."
Senna's eyes opened wide, remembering the instances where her Kido gun was blocked physically rather than dissipated like before with the other attacks mounted by Uryu herself or Chad.
"Now you're catching on," Uryu said with a stoic face, pinching the construct before them, causing it to disappear in a flash of light, showing a impatient nearly insane Malice waiting for them on the other side.
Uryu donned his Quincy bow, making sure like nothing happened other than that his spell wore off, and Senna gripped her Zanpakuto in her left hand, making Malice smile again.
"Ready to face your deaths?" Malice said, holding his Zanpakuto out to his left as he grinned toothily, but was greeted with unfazed expressions of both Senna and Uryu.
Meanwhile….sometime earlier
Tatsuki evaded another sword slice by the Mohawk donned Hanta, doing her best to keep him angry and unfocused, making simple executed jabs to his chest before evading a thrust by dropping to the ground and sweeping his feet with her left leg, sending him falling onto the ground below with a grunt.
"DAMN you, human! I can see why HIS precious Kuzuri underestimated you people…always on your damn toes," he growled as he slashed at her body, moments before she rolled over and flipped back onto her feet, not looking in the least bit winded from the exchange between the bizarre and grotesque enemy while the enemy kept being ambushed and slain easily by the Soul Hunter nearby.
The Mohawk Hanta looked around, only himself, the black haired Hanta, two others near him, and Asar were left, with the latter avoiding swings of Ryo's Zanpakuto left and right effortlessly, having yet to make another aggressive move.
"Kuroi! Help me out here instead of standing there watching!" The Mohawk Hanta yelled out in frustration, waving his sword over his head as he glanced over at the smooth black haired Hanta, who looked indifferent to his 'plight'.
"She is not a threat at her current Spiritual Power level, nor her Spiritual Pressure of any consequence. Stop holding back and finish her off," he said in a cold liquid voice, almost irritated that his comrade was taking this long to take out one insignificant human.
"Tch, hell with you! She's too weak for me to go all out on her sorry lit-ack!" He began to complain until Tatsuki swiftly kicked at his gut, before flipping backwards and catching his chin, making him flip over and crash into another section of the tarmac parking lot.
Kuroi sighed, stroking his bangs away for a moment across his ear, saying briskly in an annoyed tone, "Zoku…you're an idiot."
Said 'Zoku' exploded from the debris, swinging his sword up above his head before narrowly missing Tatsuki again, crashing the tarmac where she stood a few moments ago, growling at his miss, "Shut the hell up, Kuroi!"
Suddenly, Tatsuki was before Zoku, her eyes burning with rage, and her fist tightened louder than expected, twisting towards his chest, an unusual black current flowed around her fist, suddenly causing a ear popping boom, actually causing damage to Zoku.
Zoku was shocked as he coughed up blood, splattering on his hands and the ground below him, still unable to fathom how that happened, "T-The hell?"
Kuroi also had his eyes open wide with shock, the two other Hanta had their own hidden expressions of shock of the human landing a blow that penetrated Zoku's thick skin and caused internal damage.
"Her Spiritual Pressure just now…" Kuroi muttered quietly before Tatsuki took the initiative again, another black sparking uppercut his jaw, sending the large wiry Hanta off his feet, before hurtling across the parking lot towards the street nearly 100 feet away, causing a tremendous crash.
Tatsuki began to breathe deeply, looking down at her fists with awe and uncertainty, "What's going on?…I…was this from earlier?" She questioned, remembering the sparking residual Spiritual Pressure that Ichigo left behind during his awakening…and consequentially blew up the Gymnasium she needed, remembering a slight static shock feeling for a few minutes as the Hantas arrived on the parking lot in front of the school.
"Kill her," he said to one of the Hantas to his right, wearing a white cloth covered grass straw hat, casting shadows over his appearance as he wore a priest-like assortment of white robes instead of cloaks like the others, with silver borders. He nodded, reaching within his coat and brought out twin Machetes, gleaming with polish and slight flecks of dried blood, as well as two silver enamored skull pommels.
Within just a moment, he disappeared in a shimmering blur, reappearing to the temporarily stunned Tatsuki, cutting outwards in a twin horizontal sice towards Tatsuki's neck, just grazing her Gi, white cloth splayed like hair in all directions from the intense attack. Tatsuki immediately began doing back flips to avoid the continuous and more precise attacks of the Hanta, finding that she was dealing with an uncontrolled idiot over a cool and collected killer.
Tatsuki knew she was in trouble, and she gave a side glance over to see the Soul Hunter was busy trying to take on the self-proclaimed 'Inquisitor' Hanta, seeing that he was barely missing him with every swipe and every thrust of his long Zanpakuto.
She barely had time to duck another swipe of the machete Zanpakuto, then leaping to the side and cart wheeling to her left to avoid another slash by the near silent Hanta.
"You're very good, human. Despite your uncontrolled fluctuations of your Spiritual Pressure, your fine tuned training of your limited body has kept you in perfect condition," the previously silent Hanta spoke in a low deep voice, standing perfectly tall again back from his crouched position from which he employed his attacks just moments ago.
"Nice of you to notice but I don't accept flattery from a bunch of invading murderers such as the likes of you!" Tatsuki growled, stepping back into a defensive position, not really sure she would be able to take someone so fast and skilled than the prior Hanta she flattened, but didn't like being patronized by her enemy.
"It was just an observation, not exactly flattery. I only give my respect to those who earned it, and those who are about to die," he grinded his machetes together, sparks danced between them and a high-pitched scratching noise made Tatsuki cringe and nearly reach up to clasp her hands over her ears to stop the sound.
During that brief time, things seem to go static and blurred, then suddenly the sound seemed to stop, and everything seemed to be standing still silent, until she noticed something odd.
"Oh shit!" She yelled out, the sound coming back to her ears as she barely registered that what happened as she instinctively leapt to the left, but not after getting cut by one of the machetes across her left shoulder, now clutched by her right hand, gritting her teeth in the process as her feet skidded across the tarmac.
"Wh-What was that…feeling?" she asked herself in a whisper, clutching her arm, a steady drip came down her left arm, coating her hand in the morbid thick liquid, splattering onto the black tarmac underneath it, her own right hand was already stained richly with it.
"Ah…once again, you're human instincts and training took over. I am quite impressed," the Hanta said aloud, looking over towards her direction, his silver glowing eyes could now be seen underneath the shadow cast by his hat, malicious and predatorily gazing at her near helpless frame.
Tatsuki's brows knitted as the obvious sign of pain etched into her features, sweat came down as she could feel the nerves seem to scream to the rest of her body, but her trained and honed body refused her to let herself be slowed down by it.
"Was that your…Zanpakuto's ability?" Tatsuki asked, baiting the Hanta into at least explaining that god-forsaken noise and the feeling of everything going silent for a second, even her body's senses, when he scraped his machetes together.
The Hanta's silver demonic eyes narrowed, saying in an almost guttural tone, "You're a sharp one, human," he then raised his Zanpakuto machetes back up near his face, the blades almost touching again in a criss-cross fashion, explaining aloud, "my Kenkaku Tsuinzu allows me to emanate a high frequency in the direction I scrape my twin Zanpakuto. Its deadly effective, even effecting the most highly-skilled or high Spiritual Powered creatures, making it unrivaled in its paralyzing affects."
Tatsuki's eyes widen dramatically at the gravity of her situation. She had no control over this 'fluctuating Spiritual Pressure' whatever he was talking about, and she was now paired up with a calculative opponent with twin machetes that can paralyze you by just grinding in the general direction of the target.
Ichigo is going to pay for ruining my day! she inwardly burned with rage against her so-called best friend, now regretting yet again, for ever meeting the orange haired idiot.
Suddenly the Machete wielding Hanta was upon her again, swinging his machetes just as fast as last time, not wanting to give her time to think, slicing towards her left brow with his right machete, its cold blade sang in the air as Tatsuki's human senses kicked into overdrive, bringing everything to a crawl. She moved with all the adrenaline in her body pumping through every muscle, her head bent backwards with all the speed and agility she could muster, the blade narrowly cut off a good few centimeters of her spiky forward hair off as she avoided the lethal blow.
She gritted her teeth, not wanting to run away and distance herself like last time to give him time to use his ability again, she bent backwards enough, unclamping her hand from her injured arm, and palming the asphalt beneath her, pumping her strength to lift her lithe athletic body, pumping the legs, kicking upwards causing the Hanta to back up himself before she pumped her feet out in a ferocious kick, blocked by his other machete on its flat side.
The metal clang and the firm vice grip kept it in place, but it let Tatsuki propel herself back a few feet to get herself for battle again, narrowly missing another slice of his other machete, her jacket sleeve came undone and a slight scratch to her right arm was seen.
Tatsuki breathed inward and outward, strangely not feeling the slightest tired or worn from her battle of the Hantas as of now. Suddenly, she heard a voice within her telling her to let her mind blank…to let her instinct guide her, and not think of anything else. She suddenly felt her body spark all over, as if her body was shocked with a thousand different static areas, she almost passed out from the experience, her body seemed to radiate these black sparks, and soon her body began to glow red from it.
"You're finished!" The Hanta yelled out, seeing her fluctuating Spiritual Pressure release at a dangerous high, wanting to silence her before she could take another move that could possibly inflict mortal injury on himself.
But it was too late…a large blast of Crimson Spiritual Energy in the form of incredibly red fire, was suddenly released, following with the suddenly overwhelming feeling of her Spiritual Pressure rising exponentially, repelling the twin machete Zanpakutos with sheer might and knocking back the Hanta with sheer force, even setting his cloak on fire.
Her release of incredible Spiritual Pressure skyrocketed into the sky, crackling high above in intense release, far above where anyone could see and now even feel it.
Hanta barely managed to throw off his cloak in time, showing a bodily burned, formerly pale skinned, well toned build, and a scarred face from a jagged criss-cross shape blade wound, starting at the bridge of his nose up to his browline and down his cheeks and chin. He growled, heaving effortedly from both the pain and from the amount of strength it took to keep from dying in the release.
Kuroi's eyes were wide and awestruck, seeing this spectacular transformation and yet another near fatality to his comrade. Unlike the other Hantas, they were unique, and he felt like they were far superior, entirely different besides the dim witted Zoku. So to see one of them be nearly bested by a human…or whatever she has become, certainly made him give pause along with his other comrades.
The fighting even halted at this new development with Ryo and Asar, the former merely grunting in shock, his features hidden from view so his reaction wasn't as amazed as anyone could see, but more surprised. Asar's on the other hand gleamed and practically fell onto his back from the surprising new show of hidden power. Its almost something he always wanted to play with: a human potential of being more powerful than a Soul Reaper! The things he could do with her…the tests he could run…
His ideas were halted suddenly as a long Zanpakuto curved over to meet his brow, using incredible speed he bent over backwards before shimmering away from Ryo 5 meters to his left, raising himself back up to look at Ryo with amusement.
"Well well, you certainly act more like an opportunist than an idealist from the way you fight…you almost remind me of myself," he mused aloud, as he picked up a finger and wiped the fleck of blood about to drip down his perfect brow, noticing that a slight cut was formed above it.
He grumbled aloud, saying, "Unfortunately, you got the first blow on me…, and that won't do at all," he then raised his hand towards Ryo, uttering lowly,
"Imperius Numeral VII, Lines Inferni!" after weaving what could be described a satanic star with his left hand rapidly, he then palmed and clenched it, causing all the edges of the star to shoot out crimson chords all spreading out and snapping out like serpents. Ryo moved fast, emptying what looked like empty casings onto the ground from his Kido revolver, then reloaded them with new, yellow energy cartridges, before flipping it upside down so his pinky finger was on the trigger pointing at his feet. Mere moments before the lines struck, he uttered, "Tozansho," and then fired the gun, emitting a large inverted blue pyramid barrier, halting the devastating cutting power of the red chords from the star but cracking under the pressure.
"Please…even with your enhanced Kido, it won't keep my chords at bay for long," he grinned maliciously, tightening the hold on the inverted Kido pyramid barrier, the cracks on it became more numerous and alarmingly closed to cutting Ryo apart.
Ryo however, only used it to stall for time…to counter the Spiritual Energy ribbons before him. He held his Zanpakuto Dai-Katana horizontal to his body, whispering something that couldn't be heard behind the barrier.
As the pyramid shattered, a bright light was emitted from inside and suddenly in several arcs, the chords suddenly drained into a large red bladed obsidian handled scythe, held diagonally behind him with the blade burning red brightly pointing outwards.
"Allow me to introduce you to my Zanpakuto's true form, Hanta Inquisitor XIII," he then Flash Stepped out of view before reappearing above, slashing in a reaping arc motion, a large intense blast of energy was sent his way, causing a tremendous explosion that destroyed 15 meters of the parking lot asphalt, left in a pile of simmering rubble.
The Hanta chuckled, standing on the edges of the blast radius, his clothes were charred showing he didn't make it totally unscathed from the attack, standing erect and proud however, amused at the reveal, "Fascinating…so that's your Zanpakuto's true power? Does it have a name?"
Ryo stood stalwart and unfazed by the condition of his opponent, expecting this from him, and not uttering another word.
The Hanta twitched, irritated that he refused to answer him, but he chuckled, looking over seeing Tatsuki's form beginning to be revealed from the mighty steam and smoke that her release kicked up, saying, "Well I guess it won't matter. Soon…you and the human, will be nothing more than my personal test subjects. Shall we begin?"
The Kurosaki Neighborhood…
Senna was the first to lunge, swinging her monk staff Zanpakuto's spear point towards the Hanta, repelled by a horizontal parry, before uttering, "Sokatsui," from her Kido gun, launching a mighty blue fire at him, barely dodged, when he fell into the path of the Quincy.
"Heizen," he uttered with a cross armed gesture, a rectangular beam of energy was launched at the Hanta, to which he swore, putting up his Zanpakuto up and was pushed back across the ground before he tore it away, growling.
"Stop this crap! Fight me without stupid magic tricks!" He yelled at them, becoming pissed they weren't fighting him like before. He raised his Zanpakuto and sliced it towards the Quincy, to which he shimmered out of the way, the shockwave cutting pass a house behind him causing a large blast before the structure collapsed onto itself.
"Malice!" Senna shouted, as she leaped into the air aiming her Kido gun at him again, causing him to turn and begin a slicing motion, "Hainawa," suddenly a crawling rope of energy constricted his arm and Zanpakuto, keeping it from releasing its energy, causing him to shout in alarm.
"The hell? This won't work on me-"
"Raikohou," she uttered, suddenly a large blast of yellow lightning flew from her Kido gun's barrel, and into the Hanta's chest, causing a large shockwave and explosion of rubble, burying him into the street.
Senna gasped, feeling the effort of fighting him start to wind her, emptying her energy cell cartridge, now hissing and defused of any energy left. But instead of it being dropped to the ground, Uryu caught it with his right hand, lifting it up to see it looked a lot like a modified Ginto, except it was dull mustard yellow in color when not alit with energy, and was slightly shaped like a bullet instead of a tube.
"Interesting…so this is what powers your Kido guns," he pondered aloud, suddenly his hand was being grabbed at by Senna, only for him to close his fist around it firmly and put it into his jacket pocket.
"Give it back!" Senna growled, balling her left fist while gripping her Zanpakuto with her right hand.
"I'd rather run some of my own research on this…besides, Kisuke might find it fascinating as well, so why give it to your to be needlessly disposed of?"
"I swear, you're nothing but-" she began to retort when suddenly an overwhelming Pressure was felt, and a violent shaking was heard. The two of them both saw a red coloumn of Spiritual Energy rise into the sky, and they both felt it from a distinct unsuspected person.
"Tatsuki?" Uryu yelled incredulously, unbelieving that she suddenly had some untapped power, it was almost too much.
"What happened to her? She felt normal at the barbecue, so…where did this come from?" She also asked aloud, almost rhetorically, considering Uryu wouldn't have a clue either.
Unfortunately, that feeling of Spiritual Pressure also woke up Malice, in a bad way.
"!" A loud roar was heard from the indented rubble piled street, blasting away all the scrap and rock that was ontop of him, his wounds already healing, now apparent that he wasn't using any of his powers until now.
"You little FUCKERS! I'll kill you! I swear on my ASS I'll kill you!" He roared at them, his Zanpakuto practically shaking in the enraged Hanta's hand.
Uryu activated his bow as fast as he could, pulling back to fire 3 dozen shots. But something was incredibly different about his movements. Uryu's careful perceptive eyes saw him move effortlessly around and over each and every bolt of spiritual energy, not even bothering to initiate his slashing shockwave. Uryu was about to activate his Ginrei Kujaku, fire all of them at once, but it was too late, feeling a blurred rush of cold steel slash across his chest and up his right shoulder in a diagonal arc, immediately making him go limp.
"What a loser! I barely tried!" Malice scoffed, slamming his foot onto Uryu's back, causing him to yell out in pain, the ground beneath him broke from impact as his body indented into it, feeling the crushing pain come with it.
"How do you like that for laying out those kiddy a** tricks? Huh? How do you like it-" he was cut short as a monk staff edge came close to his neck, only for him to bend his head backwards and grab her Zanpakuto with a vice grip, chuckling.
"Not working this time, b**h!" he then spun himself into the air before landing a kick to her side, causing her to cry out in pain before feeling herself hurtle along the air, crashing through a few cars before scraping along a sidewalk.
She coughed up blood, seeing her vision go blurry as she clawed at the ground, struggling to keep herself up, stay awake…so she could protect him.
"Why don't you just stay down?" Malice asked, scraping his Zanpakuto along the road in a sickening grinding sound,
Senna trembled, her eyes stared back without fear and coldly, saying through gasps, "Yo-You wouldn't understand….monster!" She stood herself up so her left hand clenched around her injured waist, and her other hand.
Malice cackled, raising his Zanpakuto up and rested it on his shoulder, smiling toothily at her, saying, "You're certainly one to talk! Do they even know what you are, what you've done, and WHO you really work for? Do they even know you at all?"
Senna looked away, growling as she said, "I don't need to tell you anything!"
"I guess that goes to show you, how things like you treat your so-called friends," he raised his Zanpakuto up to his own neck with the flat merely 5 inches from his skin and the cutting edge pointing towards Senna.
"See yah," he said with glee, swinging his Zanpakuto towards her, the blade heading straight for her head, intending on cutting it in half. She closed her eyes, knowing there was nothing she could do now. This was it…
"The hell?…"was all that was heard after a resounding ringing was heard, her eyes shot open to see the blade was halted, by a hand outstretched and holding onto his sword. A dark liquid transparent cloak fluttered around and behind Senna, and suddenly she saw the face protruding from a dark hood, his eyes focused and serious.
"I-I-Ichigo?" She stuttered from disbelief, seeing him now, saving her again, was almost too much for her.
"So…I see you're the one responsible for Chad's wounds," Ichigo began to say, then shifted his eyes over to see Uryu's limp frame near a house near his, "and you're also responsible for wounding Uryu. Lastly, you tried to kill Senna," he didn't even look over to her, very well aware where she was and didn't bother to move his head.
"Yeah! The hell are you anyways?" Malice growled, smiling with glee at seeing he pissed whoever this guy was for the mayhem he caused, then suddenly saw his eyes glow a menacing blue and his Spiritual Pressure could be slightly felt, nearly crushing Senna where she stood and forcing Malice away, the blade left Ichigo's hand unscathed.
"I'm Ichigo Kurosaki, substitute Soul Reaper. You hurt my friends, wrecked my house and attack my town. I'm going to kick your ass!" he yelled out, his Zanpakuto unshackled in his right hand as he unleashed a furious level of Spiritual Pressure, intending on totally obliterating the monster before him.
To be continued...!
A/N: Whew! Its been awhile, guys…and with life hitting me hard with all the difficult realities, its been tough finding time to get inspiration and peace to write out my thoughts so forgive my tardy uploading…
Wow, Chapter 9! What do you know? I never thought I'd get this far without your continued support! I appreciate the Reviewers of last Chapter, and I'll give my thanks to the following: thank you XiaoWing, thank you airi-07, and lastly thank you for that constructive and encouraging Review Xantospoc! :]
Next time you guys will be seeing Tatsuki burn her rage that's been bottling up since the beginning of the series take out on these unique and dangerous foes, while a secret of Ryo's will be revealed when fighting the Inquisitor Hanta. Lastly, Ichigo will settle his score against the Hanta emotion Malice, and find out a terrible truth behind the creation and origins of the Hanta race themselves!
Edit: If you haven't noticed, I decided to remove the so-called "Censors" to allow you full priviledge of reading the colorful language you already know what it is. Lol, if this bothers someone, I'll just edit the cuss words out all together, haha!
NEXT TIME! Chapter 10: Tatsuki's temper ignites! The Secret of the Hunters, and Ichigo's Vengeance!~
