Chapter 10 – Call to Arms
Toshiro stood opposite his opponent. The arrancar looked at him with dull eyes and yawned. He had long black hair that was swept back. His mask remnant consisted of a serrated circle around his right eye. His sword, which was a nodachi, was sheathed and hung in front of his waist.
"Tell me your name, arrancar!" shouted Toshiro, and pointed his sword at him.
The arrancar merely glanced at Toshiro and yawned again. He closed his eyes and caressed his forehead. "My name? You want my name soul reaper? Tell me yours first."
"Toshiro Hitsugaya, Captain of Squad Ten."
The arrancar sighed, "Name's Jozepp Juugol, Segunda Captain of the Trece Pecados."
"Jozepp Juugol, prepare to die!"
Jozepp shrugged, "Yeah yeah, whatever."
Toshiro shot forwards and slashed at Jozepp, but he kept dodging and moved further backwards. Toshiro then raised his sword, "Hyourinmaru!" he shouted, and summoned his ice dragon to attack.
It charged head-first into Jozepp, but was stopped by a mere hand. He clenched his other hand and smashed the dragon, shattering it into little icicles.
Jozepp stalled for a second, then flipped up as Rangiku tried to sneak up behind him. She sent up Haineko after him, but he drew his nodachi, held it with both hands and slashed through the cloud, dissipating it.
He clicked his tongue and backed off more. "Two against one? Well now isn't that a little unfair? Guess I should call for some backup then." He turned away for a second and called out, "Nesikk, a little help?"
Toshiro and Rangiku turned to look at where he called and saw another arrancar, lying down on top of a very tall building. He looked rather young, younger than Jozepp. He also had long black hair, but it was tied behind him in a ponytail. He was lying down on a large cloak which was draped around his uniform, and was smoking a tomahawk pipe.
"Yo capt'n, you called?" he asked lazily when he heard his name.
"There's a fight going on you know, a little help would be greatly appreciated," Jozepp shouted back.
"I'll be right there." Nesikk got up to his feet and stretched out his arms. He then made a huge leap and stopped next to Jozepp. "Nesikk Surelli, Segunda Vice-Captain," he said.
"Well, at least it's fairer now," said Jozepp. "Though I still don't feel up to this."
"I don't care, I'm not playing around any longer," said Toshiro, with his spiritual pressure erupting around him. "Bankai! Daiguren Hyourinmaru!"
Jozepp sighed, "Guess we don't have much of a choice. Nesikk, you take the girl, I'll play around with this captain for a bit."
"Have fun, or try to at least," said Nesikk and he disappeared with sonido and appeared opposite Rangiku. "Why don't we leave our two captains alone and go take this someplace else?"
Rangiku glanced back at Toshiro and then nodded, "Agreed." She and Nesikk vanished to fight elsewhere.
"Look who's looking high and mighty," said Jose, with a sly grin. "You really think you can beat me one on one? I can see that you're the arrogant type quite easily."
"And you dare speak of arrogance?" Byakuya retorted. "To think you can even match up to me is already pure arrogance from you."
"Arrogance? Me? Ha," laughed Jose. "Let me tell you something. Apart from our leader, I'm probably the most powerful arrancar in the entire Trece Pecados. Therefore I can be arrogant all I want, I have a right."
"The sheer idiocy of your arrogance is surely ignorance. I will teach you to know your place!"
Soifon and Marechiyo stopped moving when they saw an arrancar approach them and drew their swords. "Who goes there?" Soifon shouted cautiously, watching the arrancar approach.
It was Ai, who stopped a few metres in front of Soifon and looked at her with an unconcerned look. "Ai Yoshida, Primera Vice-Captain of the Trece Pecados. And you are?" asked Ai with disinterest.
"Soifon, Captain of Squad Two," said Soifon, and then gestured to Omaeda, "This is Omaeda, my subordinate." Suddenly, a memory sparked in Soifon's mind and she asked, "Did you use to work under an arrancar named Yukari?"
Ai seemed surprised that Yukari's name was mentioned but soon went back to her discerned state. "Yes I was, it's been a long time since I heard her name, what brings her up?"
"I killed her," said Soifon bluntly. "So could it be that you're fighting to avenge her death?"
"Avenge her death? A reason as trivial as that? No, of course not, revenge is never on my agenda. I fight for a greater purpose. Everything I do is for him. For my God."
"God? If you believe that there's a God on your side then you're truly a fool."
A sudden chilling wind blew as Ai's facial expression changed from her usual indifferent one to an irritated one. "Call me what you want. But I can't let you live after you dare look down on my God!" shouted Ai, showing hostility in her face.
"Whatever," sighed Soifon. "Let's go Omaeda."
Kenpachi slashed and hacked at the arrancar, who had managed to match his strength every time and been able to block. They took turns to attack each other but neither was able to break through the other's guard.
Kenpachi put a lot of his strength into one horizontal slash. But the arrancar placed a foothold and stopped it dead. She then pushed his blade off, twisted and slashed at him. Kenpachi raised his right arm to block which was then cut a little, but Kenpachi didn't look bothered in the slightest. In fact, he carried on with another strong slash. The arrancar blocked with no problem, and they both jumped back simultaneously to give themselves a little distance.
Kenpachi looked at both of his bleeding arms and grinned widely with satisfaction. The arrancar also had a satisfied smile on her face. She then placed her finger through a ring on the guard of her wakizashi, and began to spin it around menacingly. Kenpachi now started to look at his opponent properly. She had short black hair, wildly styled. Her mask remnant resembled a spade symbol which was under her left eye, with the tail encircling the back of her head. She wore a normal uniform with shortened sleeves that revealed her midriff, showing her hollow hole where her navel was supposed to be.
She suddenly let out a laugh and stopped spinning her wakizashi. "What power you have, I like you a lot. I'm Marria Juugol," she said and turned around, showing Kenpachi a number four tattooed in a Gotei squad number frame on her lower back. "Cuarto Captain of the Trece Pecados. Now why don't you be a good boy and tell me your name?"
Kenpachi's grin grew wider and he swiped his sword viciously through the air. "I am Kenpachi Zaraki, Captain of Squad Eleven of the Gotei Thirteen, and the strongest soul reaper in Seireitei!"
"What arrogance, you're just my type of man. I'll judge for myself how strong you really are!" Both of them moved off again.
Raven, flanked by Izuru and Zeo, saw the arrancar disperse and immediately was confronted by one of them, who was also flanked by two other arrancar.
"I don't think you should go any further. You will not stop my master's plans," said the arrancar in the middle. He had spiked metallic-grey hair, which was complimented by his pale white skin. His eyes were blood red with the look of malice in them. His mask remnant was on his shoulder acting as a shoulder pad, which resembled the top half of a long beak.
Zeo turned to Raven. "I believe that guy talking is the stronger, why don't Izuru and I take the two lackeys to free up some space?"
Raven gave a nod, without taking his eyes off the arrancar who just spoke. It seemed the arrancar had the same idea, as the two flanking the main arrancar moved to meet Zeo and Izuru before disappearing off into the distance.
"Now that's muy bueno, some space to stretch your legs. To prepare for a masterpiece one must have room to use his tools," said Raven's foe.
"Why don't you just surrender before there's any needless bloodshed?" asked Raven with a threatening tone.
"Surrender? Are you mad? I would never let an opportunity like this to create a perfect masterpiece slip me by."
"I'd rather not do this," said Raven, who hadn't moved since he was stopped.
"For the grand purpose of things war is inevitable, and all those who hesitate to fight will be cut down," said the arrancar, drawing his sword. "Be proud and honoured that you are facing me, Cain Naituz, Sexto Captain of the Trece Pecados. And what is your name?"
Raven slowly drew out his sword and said "Raven Ruhodesu. Squad Three Captain of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, and I wish you do not forgive me when you die."
Matthew didn't change his expression when he saw his accomplice arrive. He glanced at Terri, who was still stapled to the wall, motionless, and then hurried on forwards.
"Yes I am finally in. It took a while, that Jidanbo was irritating, he wouldn't open the gate even when I beat him. So I thought it'd be easier just to silence him permanently. Though, I did realise after that that I wouldn't be able to get in. Luckily I ran into my old friend Zakura and quite easily tricked her into letting me in. Such a gullible child, I wonder how I ever had trouble with that lot in the first place. Though, her parents were much more irritating than her. Whatever, we won't see much of her now. Stupid girl."
Shihai listened to Matthew's mumblings as they walked along the empty alleyways of Seireitei and was rather bewildered by his talkativeness. But he decided to just nod along so as to not upset him. "Yeah, I never liked her anyway, good thing you got rid of her. And your power is just as they say. To so easily be able to kill a captain like that. Most impressive."
"Yes yes yes, enough of that. I've got much more important affairs than some stupid Zakura. So tell me, have you found it?" asked Matthew, suddenly serious as he stopped abruptly. "You've been here long enough just to find one item, it can't be hard."
"It wasn't hard to get the whereabouts. I scouted around a little and asked a few questions here and there. It seems like no one knows for sure, not even the lieutenants. But almost all of them pointed me in the Zakura house's direction."
"The Zakura house?" Matthew thought for a moment and then nodded, "Guess that does make sense. She was one of their closest friends so I guess it makes sense to hand it to them. Still, with something that powerful I wouldn't be surprised if Central 46 sealed it. Where in the Zakura house, it is a very big place, any ideas?"
"Sorry, that much I couldn't get. There were rumours but everyone I asked said a different place."
Matthew sighed and carried on moving. "Never mind then, we'll just search the place. Thanks to the arrancar invasion we've got plenty of time before anyone comes back."
Terri's eyesight blurred. She couldn't even sense the pain she had first felt. She raised her right hand but saw three hands in front of her. With all of her remaining strength she grabbed the bit of Matthew's muscle pinning her to the wall and yanked it out. However, she toppled over as her legs went numb.
All she could feel was nothingness. She had no energy to think, move or look around. And the last thing she saw with her eyes was red.
Just as she lost consciousness, there was a sudden white flash and a Senkaimon opened next to her. Two people stepped out, a male and female, and they knelt down next to her.
"It's okay now Terri. You're going to be just fine," said a warm motherly voice.
Due to some technical difficulties i.e. a broken laptop, I'm going on hiatus for about two weeks. Hopefully no more. So merry christmas and a happy new year to everyone!