Chapter 10
It felt like 1000 years to finish this.
...
The lightning flashed across the sky illuminating the night for an instant, usually, it would be ill-advised for teenagers to be out during a thunderstorm but that didn't matter to Yaustora or Ichigo at the moment. The lightning flashed and the both of them saw the grinning face of the Hollow before them for an instant before darkness hides mask-face.
Mighty kept his breathing steady, and his stance consistent, his eye was glued on the monster in front of him, however, every couple of seconds his eyes would shift over to Ichigo was practically itching to get going. Mighty hoped to find some sort of weakness he could exploit just like the other Hollow's faced. He gritted his teeth, Hollow were simple creatures in that they would often reveal a weakness of sorts... but this Hollow wasn't like the others, this was far more experienced, Mighty could tell just by looking at it.
The Hollow stood poised and unmoving.
The lightning flashed, Mighty was on the move, when he got near the Hollow, he sprang forwards and moved to swing at the Hollow's mask, and the Hollow jumped backwards, but Mighty expected this and pulled back to Ichigo and turned to him
"Ichigo, I need you to distract him, can you do that?"
Ichigo nodded and he immediately ran towards the Hollow, Mighty kept behind him. Ichigo threw a punch, the Hollow merely moved to the side and then laughed.
"Haha, did you think I wouldn't see you?"
Mighty attacked the Hollow but the Hollow quite easily moved backwards and bellowed with laughter.
"How do we defeat this thing? It's too fast for us. "Ichigo exclaimed.
Mighty stepped forward and instructed Ichigo to stay behind him, he unsheathed his second swore and then Mighty moved off much faster than he was before, he swung vertically managing to cut a hair off the Hollow. In response to this, the Hollow jumped back further into the graveyard.
Mighty called before he ran after the Hollow and began a constant stream of sword swings, which the Hollow managed to dodge.
"Hmm not bad, Shinigami. You're keeping your head, that's good. However... "
The Hollow stopped his swords by bringing up its talon, "You're not strong enough." The Hollow clenched both swords and threw them up taking Mighty with them. Suddenly, Ichigo appeared and punched the Hollow on the mask, but this time the Hollow remained sturdy.
"Hm? Oh yeah, I forgot about you "The Hollow said casually, "Oh good, your spiritual power is still going up. Let me join in. "And then the atmosphere suddenly got heavier and thicker.
Ichigo moved back and returned to his stance and focused on the Hollow, "I need to focus on the mask.. It's the only way to hit him." Ichigo breathed out and then charged forwards and brought his fist towards the monsters mask, but the Hollow's hairs sprang to life and caught Ichigo's wrist and the Hollow opened its mouth and was dragging Ichigo towards it.
Ichigo was struggling to free himself, just then he saw Mighty above the Hollow emitting a red light from his body, he had his swords held above his head ready to swing. The Hollow used its talon to block to the strikes
"You guy's sure are stubborn"
The lightning flashed.
The strange light around Mighty's body got bigger until he looked like a candle flame. Mighty began to push back on the Hollow, Mighty freed one of his swords and stabbed the Hollow in its talon. The Hollow screamed and freed Ichigo and his other sword at the same time
Mighty landed next to Ichigo, and Ichigo asked him, "Chad, you good?"
Mighty didn't face Ichigo, he sheathed his second blade, "Yeah, I'm good. This Hollow is really good, better than the others I've faced. "The light around Mighty flared even more.
...
Rukia had finally reached the top of the hill where the main cemetery was. Rukia wiped that rainwater from her eyes and looked ahead at the dark and stormy cemetery. She didn't have her pager so she didn't know where to find Yasutora or the Hollow.
"Damn, I can't find them... "Rukia jogged briskly through the cemetery whilst looking around for any leads, she continued to walk and the lightning flashed, her eyes caught glimpse of battle scars on the ground. Rukia drew closer to the scars which were embedded in the ground and studied them.
Suddenly there was a loud crash, Rukia looked ahead and saw a cloud of dust higher on the hill and she sensed a familiar presence.
"I'm sensing different spiritual powers coming from the top of the hill
There was another loud crash from the top of the hill, Rukia set off for the higher part of the hill.
...
"Too slow!"
The Hollow jumped out of the way of Ichigo's punch and then Mighty ran through Ichigo's legs and jumped towards the Hollow with a vertical slash and managed to slice of several hairs.
"To sl-"
Mighty landed on the ground and immediately followed it up with a similar attack which cut deeper than before. The Hollow noticed this and for the second time he attacked with its hairs coiling them like a spear, it shot forward aiming at Mighty, but Mighty turned around and the spear-like hair hit his shell causing Mighty to fly forwards.
The Hollow glanced towards its patch of hair on the ground, the grin that was once on its face before was beginning to fade away, and a look of worry was going to take its place.
"That bastard is actually getting stronger. His attacks are getting more and more accurate. How can this be? How is he doing this? "The Hollow saw Mighty getting up after landing, the Hollow narrowed its eyes at him, "If I'm not careful... he could rise to an even higher level than myself and actually kill me. I need to end this now. "The Hollow gaze shifted towards Ichigo and with its hairs, the Hollow grabbed Ichigo and brought him into its very hairy body then took off across the cemetery.
Mighty saw this and gave chase, but it didn't take him long to catch up with the Hollow. He kept a steady pace, he couldn't attack because he didn't know where Ichigo was at the moment so he had to wait until the Hollow stopped. Mighty chased the Hollow down the hill of the cemetery and the Hollow finally stopped and faced Mighty
"You're an interesting Shinigami, but playtime is over. You may have the power but could you really cut me knowing your friend is in me? "The Hollow mocked.
Mighty only stared.
Then Ichigo started popping out of the Hollow's hairy body like a whackamole, "Try and hit me if you can or your friend dies,"
Mighty charged and swung his sword, but when his sword got near, Ichigo's head popped out and then he jumped back, he tried again and again and again but the same result occurred with Ichigo's head popping out of the Hollow's hair. Hollow countered by smacking Mighty with its talon, knocking him into a tree.
"Hahaha!" The Hollow howl in laughter, "All you Shinigami are alike, you're all SOFT"The Hollow continued to laugh, "It's time to end this!"
Mighty slowly stood up, he felt a sharp pain in his right arm whenever he tried to move it, he gritted his teeth in frustration.
"Oh... who's this?" The Hollow said looking past Mighty.
Mighty turned when he heard footsteps, he turned and saw a figure running in the dark.
"Another Soul for eating." The Hollow said gleefully.
"HEY STAY BACK! "Mighty yelled.
Suddenly, Mighty felt a sharp pain hit his chest. He looked down and saw the Hollow's hair impaled in his chest. Mighty began coughing out blood, the hair lifted Mighty into the air and knocked him into another tree. With his one working arm, he heaved himself up and with his broken arm, he put his hand over the wound on his chest. His legs trembled and his breathing was rapid and desperate.
"Yasutora!"
Mighty turned to his side and saw Rukia, she stared at him wide-eyed and then she turned back to her front, "Grand Fisher." She muttered, "This Hollow has been evading Shinigami for fifty years."
Mighty breathed out and pushed himself up on his sword, "R-Rukia, ya gotta get going. This creep's gonna kill you if you stick around" He coughed out.
"Don't be stupid, this is my job I'm a Shinigami." Rukia replied.
Mighty finally managed to stand up straight despite his injuries, "But what can you do?" He wheezed, he held his sword with his good arm and tried to get into a stance, but he dropped his sword "I'll get him someho-" Then Rukia crouched and supported his arm.
"As I said: I'm a Shinigami, you're just a substitute so I must help you." She said sternly
"Saying a little prayer before I kill you? That's fine you can j-"
An unseen force blew the hair off the Grand Fishers body and from that area Ichigo flew out and landed on his feet in front of Mighty and Rukia, he took the sword that was plunged into the earth.
"Shut up! I'm sick of hearing all your crap since Chad can't fight you I'm gonna take his place. "Ichigo declared, pointing at the Hollow with Mighty's zanpakuto, at this, the Hollow simply laughed at him.
"You broke out and now you aim to defeat me?" The Hollow said intrigued.
Suddenly an enormous wind-like force exploded from Ichigo, he clenched his sword.
"Do you remember me? I am Kurosaki Ichigo and I'm going you're going to pay for killing my mother by the river! "Then with a sudden burst of speed, he ran forward and attacked with a vertical slice and the Grand Fisher dodged and then Ichigo changed his direction and swung his sword at the Hollow's feet and managed to slice off the Hollow's talon.
"Huh?" The hollow sounding panicked glanced at Ichigo who had blood dripping from his sword. The Hollow screamed and then jumped away.
Ichigo ran after where the Hollow
"Ichigo w- "Mighty tried to move but his injuries made that difficult.
"Idiot don't move," Rukia crouched down even lower, "Get on my back." She said and Mighty did so without a word, Rukia slowly stood up and she ran after Ichigo. She passed by a bunch of trees that were knocked down, it didn't take long for her to find Ichigo fighting against Grand Fisher with a zanpakuto
"That boy... his spiritual power just keeps going up, just what is he?" Rukia continued to watch Ichigo fight the elderly Hollow one on one and was winning. The Grand-Fisher was covered in cuts which were leaking blood didn't seem to stop leaking.
Ichigo slowly approached the Hollow ready to deliver the finish it off, as it laid there, its lure planted itself on the ground and like a branch it produced that "little girl" that Ichigo previously encountered, Ichigo stepped back hesitantly and then the lure that connected the image of the girl to the Hollow, started to get lumps and the body of Hollow was beginning to shrink and get absorbed into the little girl.
"Ah ha! You thought that you've defeated me because you injured that body? This is my body as well! "Croaked the Grand Fisher in the body of the little girl.
Ichigo immediately swung his sword at the little girl who jumped out of the way.
"You hesitated. Can't even kill the one who killed your own mother? "The creature laughed and then jumped high into the air and continued to soar high into the night sky, " You'll burn for this one day, Kurosaki Ichigo!"
"COME BACK!" Ichigo roared, he jumped as high as he could but the Hollow was already out of sight. Ichigo landed hard on the ground, Ichigo punched the ground as hard as he could, "DAMN IT!" He fell on his knees and tears began to fall from his eyes and Ichigo began to cry.
"Ichigo"
Ichigo turned around and saw Mighty with Rukia on her back with his robe tied around his wound.
Mighty gave Ichigo a sympathetic look and Ichigo didn't say anything, "He escaped, but as far as we know you won." He said hoping to raise Ichigo's spirits
Ichigo continued to cry, " I-I hesitated... It would have been done... but I... "
"Kurosaki-san, the fight is over and you fought well for a Human." Rukia softly cut in, " You're not a Shinigami so don't be so hard on yourself. "
Mighty nodded in agreement," You are strong Ichigo, perhaps you don't feel like you avenged your mother but at least you can use that power to protect others so there will be no need for avenging and... "Mighty looked up at the sky that was still filled with rain clouds, "Maybe you'll get your chance of revenge next time."
Ichigo blinked and then wiped the tears from his eyes and his gaze hardened, "Thanks Chad." He rose to his feet, "You saved my sisters and me, thanks, man."
"Anytime." Mighty replied.
Rukia gently set Mighty on the ground, "Let me heal the both of you." Rukia said, "Let me start with you Kurosaki-san so you can go back to your family
….
Thanks for reading