Chapter 9 – In Cold Blood
Terri was at a loss for words. There, stood in front of her, in front of her very own eyes, was Hiroshi Takashi, her friend. He had helped her and was always with her during the tough years in Shinou Academy, even though she was different from the rest. He was also the one to help her overcome the tragedy that befell Shinou Academy. It had been fifty years since the day when Hiroshi died at Matthew's hands. Fifty long years had passed and Terri thought she had finally gotten over his death. But now, there he was, standing in front of her as though nothing had happened, smiling idiotically, just like the first day they met.
"Hi… Hiroshi? Is… is that really you? This… isn't a dream… is it?" stammered Terri, finding it difficult to utter the words.
Hiroshi took a few steps towards Terri, until he was only about a metre away. "Hey Terri, remember me? I hope so, though it has been fifty years now."
Terri's mouth was open, but no sound came out. She slowly staggered towards him and touched his sleeves. They were real, she wasn't seeing a ghost. "It's really you?" Terri asked again, as if reassuring herself that she wasn't somehow hallucinating.
"Well, I've said it's me, so I think you're the one to decide whether you believe it's me or not."
Suddenly, Terri threw herself around his neck and burst into tears. "It's you, it's really you!" she said happily, with tears of joy flowing down her cheeks. "I don't know how, and I can't believe it, but it's really you."
"Yeah, it's me alright. I'm finally back."
Terri backed off of him and wiped away her tears. "But… how? I thought you were killed by Matthew. I saw it with my own eyes."
"Looks can be deceiving, remember that," he said with a warm smile. "I didn't die that day. I was alive, but just barely. I was so close to death that it's taken me fifty years to recover, and that's why I'm here with you today. Remember my sword? Ouja no Fushoku. He carried on living, even though I apparently died. And that's proof that I survived. A Zanpakuto can't live without its master alive, remember that? That's one of the first things we learnt at the academy all that time ago."
"I don't care how and why. I'm just glad you're back with me now. I've missed you so much," said Terri with such pure joy, something she hadn't felt since her academy days.
"I've missed you too. And look at you now, a captain of the Gotei. You've made me proud. I only wished I had seen you made into a captain. Well, I guess we have plenty of time to catch up now."
"Yeah!" Terri nodded like an energetic little girl. She ran past the gates into Seireitei and gestured for Hiroshi to follow. "Come on! I'll show you my squad headquarters," she said. Due to the excitement of seeing her old friend, it seemed she had forgotten all about the current emergency situation.
Hiroshi followed after her and waved a hand to shut the gates immediately as they got into Seireitei. Terri didn't notice, she grabbed Hiroshi's hand and led him on.
As they got to an empty street, Hiroshi suddenly stopped. He looked down at the ground and then faced Terri with confidence.
"Something wrong?" Terri asked.
"Terri. There's something I want to say to you. It's taken me fifty years to finally have the courage to say it," Hiroshi started with determination. "Terri. Ever since I met you… I've liked you! I like you Terri. I really, really like you. Do you… like me too?"
Terri's face went red and she turned away like a shy little girl. She turned back with a wide smile, walked up to Hiroshi and gave him another hug. "Of course I like you silly. I've always liked you. From that first day you asked me to be your friend."
A sudden evil smirk lit up on Hiroshi's voice changed to something much more colder and piercing, and he uttered, "Tosigo Seipt, Empalar." He grabbed Terri's shoulders and threw her off him. His ribs swung open, revealing the bloody inside of his chest. Something moved, and out shot a barbed spear-shaped length of muscle. It struck Terri straight through her chest and pinned her against a wall.
A sudden confusion swept over Terri. She didn't know what happened. The short moment of joy, shattered, just like that. Blood dripped out of her open mouth. All her strength left her as she looked down at the barbed muscle in her chest, that still wriggled about. She raised her head and looked at Hiroshi. "Why?" she was able to whisper out.
Hiroshi laughed a cold malicious laugh. "Why, you ask? Because you didn't heed my warning. Looks can be deceiving." A reptilian hand appeared out of Hiroshi's mouth and ripped him in two. Out of the ripped skin came Matthew, smirking. "There we go, much better. Ever since I put that disguise on, I haven't had a chance to change my skin. But it was worth it. You should've seen you face. You crack me up Zakura. Did you miss your best friend? I really don't think he's coming back you know, because if you recall correctly, I killed him! And now, I've killed you too. See how nice I am? You can go join Hiroshi now and be all happy. So, I guess we have to bid farewell now. Bye bye," he mocked, and burst into a fit of laughter.
Terri's eyes filled with sadness. She thought she had her friend back, but it was just a fake. And now, she could feel her life fading away. A teardrop crawled down Terri's face as she closed her eyes. "I guess I was just too naïve," she thought, before everything went blank.
"Well, that was easy enough," said Matthew. "Now onto more pressing matters. Shihai! Get out here!" he called.
Shihai flash stepped next to him, "So you're in at last then," Shihai replied, conversing familiarly with the arrancar.
Hikari glared at the two arrancar facing her. The rest of the arrancar carried on moving away from them, but Hikari knew she couldn't stop them alone. She pointed at the two arrancar and asked, "What are arrancar doing in the real world? It's been a while since I've seen one of your kind for quite a long time now. What business could you people possibly have here?"
One of the arrancar laughed, "Business? What business can we have here? Are you kidding me? We can go wherever we want. You have no right to ask what business we have, and I'm not going to tell you, anyway. There are so many possibilities though, why don't you try guessing?"
"Thought as much," Hikari replied. "Well, it never was easy trying to get answers out of you lot. I'll just have to beat you up a little first, then." She swiped her hand through the air and the blades above her shot towards the arrancar. The two of them moved out of the way, but the blades followed them and exploded on contact.
There were a few seconds of silence, but then a cero shot out of one of the explosions. Hikari flipped up to dodge it. A second cero came and Hikari directed her blade in front of her, to act as a shield. She felt someone behind her and quickly summoned a blade into her hand to block the arrancar attacking from behind. She then gestured for the blades to attack, so the arrancar backed off.
But something was wrong, as the other arrancar had gone missing. She suddenly felt him underneath her and saw a cero approach.
"Scatter, Senbonzakura," said Byakuya's voice, and his sword intercepted the cero. "You ought to be more careful, Former-Captain of Squad Five, Hikari Uera."
"Well, if it isn't Byakuya. Long time no see. How've you been?"
"I'm fine. And its Captain Kuchiki to you," said Byakuya coolly.
"No need to be mean. We're friends aren't we? Anyway, how's my goddaughter doing? Terri's not causing any trouble is she?" asked Hikari, with a cheerful smile.
"You can ask how she's doing yourself. But if you haven't noticed, we've got a job to do," said Byakuya, immediately flash stepping away, attacking one of the arrancar and pushing him away from Hikari and the other arrancar.
Hikari sighed, "Guess you haven't changed." The arrancar that Byakuya left turned towards his comrade. Hikari shot out more blades at him to attract his attention. "Hey arrancar, your fight's with me!"
"Don't get cocky, just 'cos you got a friend. I can easily beat you single-handed."
"So then arrancar, I've told you my name, why don't you tell me yours?"
"You want my name? I'll tell you, so you'll die a satisfied death when you know the power I have. Septimo Captain of the Trece Pecados, Vjhak Vyyn Vohen," said the arrancar, with an uncontrollable twitch in his eye.
"Interesting name, but that doesn't sound powerful one bit. Come at me with everything you've got then. I'll show you that I have far more power than you ever will."
Byakuya pushed the arrancar back far enough that they were out of the way of Hikari's fight.
The arrancar jumped back and scratched his short, tidy, black hair. He had no mask and had a young appearance. He stroked his clean-shaven chin with his gloved hands and eyed Byakuya with interest. "Byakuya Kuchiki I presume? I could tell by your sword. I've always admired your sword's ability, and I have to say that seeing it up close is quite the honour." Byakuya merely looked at him, disinterested.
The arrancar noticed this, and cleared his throat. "Sorry, where are my manners. I am Jose Zuumor, Quinto Captain of the Trece Pecados."
"God-Captain, it seems that the soul reapers are still close on our tail," said Ai looking back at their pursuers.
"If they weren't, then they wouldn't be doing their job properly," said the leader of the arrancar. "Nothing to worry about, I predicted as much. Marria. Jozepp. Go entertain our guests some more, we'll stop their pursuit sooner or later."
A male arrancar and a female arrancar stopped, and fell back to meet the soul reapers.
Kiyomi saw the two oncoming arrancar and was about to draw her sword but stopped as she heard a loud laugh.
"Ahahahaha! It's about time I had some fun!" shouted Kenpachi, who rushed towards the arrancar. He slammed down his sword at the male with such strength that he pushed him back quite far. He then turned to the female and rushed forwards at her. Putting strength into his attack again, he slashed at her ferociously. The arrancar surprisingly held her ground, parried the attack, then cut Kenpachi across his other arm.
Kenpachi looked at the blood seeping out of his wound and grinned. "Well now, isn't this interesting." He laughed loudly and charged again.
Toshiro appeared next to Kiyomi, "That Zaraki, what recklessness."
"Toshiro, you going to be okay?"
"I'm fine. Captain Unohana fixed me up when I came to back you up. Don't worry about me, just stop the leader and this fight'll be over. Matsumoto, let's go," said Toshiro, and moved off to attack the male arrancar that Kenpachi pushed away first, with Matsumoto following closely behind.
Kiyomi carried on moving, and Raven appeared next to her this time. "Toshiro's right, you need to get to their leader. And by the looks of things, he won't stop unless we clear all of his underlings first. I propose that we all move at once and drag them away, to clear a path for you to him."
Kiyomi turned around, to see what was left of the Gotei captains. They all nodded at her. She then nodded herself, "Fine then. Let's begin the full assault."
Raven moved, followed by everyone else.
The arrancar leader stopped, "Seems like they've finally launched the main assault. About time too. Everyone, attack now! Kiyomi is mine!"
The arrancar moved, and met the soul reapers head on, separating into their own matchups.
The way was cleared. Kiyomi moved swiftly for the leader, who had stopped moving.
As she got closer she could sense the arrancar's spiritual pressure. "This spiritual pressure… it's so familiar," she thought. The arrancar faced the other way as she stopped behind him, a few metres back. "Alright arrancar, I don't know what you're doing or what you want, but I do know that whatever it is, I'll stop you."
The arrancar let out a large amount of spiritual pressure. "Stop me? You don't even know who I am."
"Wait, I know this spiritual pressure, it was from when we faced Kenji fifty years ago. But Kenji is dead. Wait a minute, no. This isn't Kenji's. No… there was another there at the time."
"Of course you don't know me, but this may remind you." The arrancar drew his sword, turned, and fired a cero at Kiyomi in one swift motion.
Kiyomi reacted quickly and sliced through the cero. She turned to look at the arrancar. She didn't recognise the face, but after being near his cero, she knew who it was. She stated coolly, "So you didn't die."