Here's the second part of the Christmas present. Enjoy, and have a Merry Christmas!
Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach or InuYasha. I SAID, BACK OFF LAWYERS! NO TOUCHY!
"talking"
'thinking'
Chapter XII: Battle Ignition
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Eyes bound by white cloth
She listens for the Hollow
To strike out at her
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'It's hidden itself again,' thought Kagome cautiously.
She was currently standing in the opening of a narrow alley between two buildings, a temporary sanctuary from what was to come. Yet Kagome knew that even here she was not safe; the Hollow had proven itself to be surprisingly agile when it came to maneuvering its way through the narrow back alleys of the Thirteenth Division's barracks.
The wind blew through the grove of trees that stood off to the courtyard's left, creating a sound similar to the rushing of waves on a beach. Unlike the courtyard that Kagome had left previously, this one was smaller and was obviously built on as an afterthought; Kagome suspected that no one ever used it.
There was evidence of the Hollow here. Cracked cobblestones, huge dents in the walls of nearby buildings, gash marks on nearly every type of surface… Kagome suspected that the Hollow was slowly being driven mad by hunger, since she didn't feel any shinigami presence's nearby. Why else would such a creature tear up the barracks when there was no one about?
The hairs on the back of Kagome's neck pricked up, and a seventh sense – shinigami had six – told her that the Hollow was very near. Reacting instinctively, Kagome leapt out into the courtyard, drawing her zanpakutou in preparation. Mere seconds later, the entrance of the alleyway where she had been standing suddenly collapsed into itself as something huge tore up the sides of the two buildings that surrounded it.
Kagome waited expectantly, her zanpakutou at the ready as she peered into the dusty gloom that was what was left of the alleyway. Even if the Hollow was invisible, the powdery dust would surely stick to it and reveal its form.
Something moved amidst the curtain of falling dust, and Kagome squinted her eyes as she tried to make out what it was. Almost too late she realized that it was the Hollow's curled, chameleon-like tail lashing out at her. Ducking, she had to lay almost flat against the paved ground beneath her to avoid the crushing blow that she would have undoubtedly received if she hadn't ducked sooner.
A faint, whistling sound reached her ears and Kagome scrambled to her feet. She jumped away from her previous spot and knew that her assumption had been right when the sound of cracking cobblestones and the blast of air came from behind her: the Hollow had attempted to jump on her.
Kagome took up the defensive position again as she watched the Hollow. She smirked when she saw that a fine layer of greyish dust coated the creature's form, outlining it perfectly. If the dust stayed on, she would have no trouble locating it.
But the Hollow, despite its growing insanity, was quite intelligent. It gave a growl of what seemed to be laughter, a deep noise that reverberated up into Kagome's feet, and its skin seemed to twitch under the layer of dust. Then, like a wet dog, it vigorously shook itself free of the dust and left it invisible once more. Kagome swallowed; a Hollow that could become invisible and was dangerously fast, not to mention agile, was more than a cakewalk.
Gripping her zanpakutou's brightly-colored hilt tightly, Kagome gritted her teeth in annoyance. This Hollow was too powerful to fight with a sealed zanpakutou; she would have to use her Shikai (Initial Release) in order to fight it without worrying about her head being smashed in.
The Hollow was coming at her again; she could hear the barely-discernable whistle of air rushing against its body. Without knowing where exactly the Hollow was coming from, Kagome was forced to dodge to the side blindly. She knew that she had made a mistake when the foreboding feeling in her body increased to an almost paralyzing level.
Five parallel lines of what felt like burning fire erupted on her back, and Kagome cried out at the sensation. She stumbled to the ground and crawled to get away from the Hollow, who had obviously scratched her with its long, nasty claws.
Grunting in pain, Kagome forced herself to stand erect and faced the general direction of where she believed that the Hollow was hiding. A sticky, warm wetness began to soak quickly into the back of her shihakushou and Kagome realized that she was angry at the Hollow for daring to harm her.
"You know what, you stupid Hollow?" said Kagome, panting from the intense, burning pain on her back. "You're really starting to piss me off."
"So tastyyy…" rumbled the Hollow in response, and Kagome wrinkled her nose in disgust as she heard a wet, slurping sound; the Hollow was licking her blood off of its claws with what was left of its tongue.
Eye twitching in irritation, Kagome held her zanpakutou out at arm's length with one hand, the top edge of the katana facing her body. Reaching out to her zanpakutou with her mind, she harmonized herself with her other half.
In a loud, commanding voice, she said, "Pierce the heavens, Rai'Rinne ('Thunder Reincarnation')!"
There was the distinct smell of ozone as visible charges of bright-blue electricity erupted in arcs from Rai'Rinne's blade. Then a shock wave – surrounded by blue, yellow, and purple sparks of intense, neon color – burst out from the zanpakutou as it began to change form, a crack of thunder following in the wave's wake. Rai'Rinne began to glow with a golden light, its form lengthening and its blade changing position and shape. The multicolored sparks died into nothing as the shock wave dissipated, and the glow around Rai'Rinne faded as the zanpakutou fully transformed into its Shikai.
Kagome now held a beautiful, elegant scythe (1), which was almost a whole head taller than her. The staff of the weapon, which had previously been the hilt, now rested firmly against the ground, wrapped in the same leathery ribbons and in the same colors – electric-blue, neon-purple, and bright-yellow. Loose ribbons fluttered in the breeze, their ends tattered as if they were quite old; their iridescent brilliance, however, disproved that fact.
The blade of Rai'Rinne was actually quite simple for Shikai form. Now a light-blue steel, which was unusual for a Shikai, the blade of the scythe curved out and down to nearly a meter in length. The tip was sharp, and the edge of the blade was so fine that it looked nearly transparent. There was a circular-shaped notch in the steel near where the blade was jointed to the staff by an extension of itself; the staff fitted perfectly into the extension. On this extension were three short spikes curving down opposite of the blade.
To others, Rai'Rinne may have looked gaudy, but to Kagome she was the epitome of lightning. Despite her name, the zanpakutou's main power was over the superheated charges that fell from the sky; the thunder she created was an aftereffect.
"Try and hide now, Hollow," said Kagome venomously, smirking and slicing her zanpakutou through the air. "Rai'Rinne will tear you apart."
Taking the zanpakutou's staff into both hands, she sliced out in the direction she believed that the Hollow was standing. She poured her reiryoku into Rai'Rinne, mixing it with the zanpakutou's, and an arc of lightning shot out into the courtyard.
Rai'Rinne had her name for a reason. The lightning split itself into two halves, which in turn split again, making four bolts of lightning. This continued until the air filled with lightning strikes, the thunder they created echoing over the Thirteenth Division's barracks. Kagome stood absolutely still as charges of superheated energy, one of the purest forms in the world, branched past her head in colors of purple, yellow, and blue, with variations in-between. The only reason that Kagome wasn't hit was because Rai'Rinne generated an electric field consisting of randomly-distributed electrons and protons, which counteracted the positive and negative charges of the lightning strikes. It wasn't a perfect system, but Kagome hadn't been hit by her own lightning yet.
Raising Rai'Rinne high into the air, Kagome watched as the lightning she had conjured went straight for the curved, metal blade of her zanpakutou. She experienced a strange tingling in her hand as Rai'Rinne absorbed the powerful charges, but suffered no ill effects from it. Within seconds, the air was clear, and the only sign that the lightning had been there was the smell of ozone and the fact that Kagome's hair was crackling with static.
Kagome cautiously surveyed the empty courtyard before her. Surely Rai'Rinne's charges had destroyed the Hollow? Then why hadn't the Hollow reappeared as it had died? Something was fishy…
A deep, animalistic growl emanated somewhere from behind and above Kagome. The shinigami lieutenant's eyes widened in shock, and she whipped around with Rai'Rinne's blade ready to block. The resulting blow that rammed against Rai'Rinne was so strong that it nearly knocked Kagome off her feet.
It was then that Kagome realized that the only thing she had accomplished was pissing the Hollow off. A pissed-off Hollow was not a good Hollow.
'Dammit! Where the hell are those reinforcements I sent for?' thought Kagome desperately as she barely managed to ward off another tremendous blow. 'I can't see the damn thing–'
A strange thought struck her. She couldn't see the Hollow when it attacked, but she could hear it, just barely.
Kagome knew that when one sense was cut off, the remaining four became more acute. Seeing wasn't helping her any, so what if she blindfolded herself? Maybe then, with sharper hearing, she could defeat the Hollow. The only problem with this plan was that Kagome was pretty sure that the Hollow wasn't just going to stop and wait like a good little Minus while she untied the white hakama-himo (sash) from around her waist and bound her eyes with it.
Barely blocking yet another swipe by the Hollow (which felt a semi truck had just rammed into Rai-Rinne at full speed), Kagome panted and said, "Say, Hollow-san, how 'bout we take, I don't know, a five-minute break? How does that sound?"
An enraged howl from the Hollow and another swipe gave her the answer she had been expecting. However, a battle-hardened shinigami like Kagome always liked to remain optimistic when faced with certain doom.
"Five-minute break! Got it! 'Kay, thanks!" Kagome called to the Hollow as she turned tail and ran, using shunpo to get as far away as needed.
Running down a nearby alley and ducking behind a building, Kagome winced when she heard and felt the Hollow collide with her hiding place. Debris fell from the roof and fell near Kagome's sandaled feet.
Kagome's hands shook from blood loss as she hurriedly untied the white sash from around her waist. She was disturbed to see that it had soaked totally through with blood in the back, but was forced to brush her worry aside when she heard an angry roar from the Hollow. A second later, one of the Hollow's hands punched through the wall next to her head, scrambling for a hold on her.
The ebony-haired shinigami merely stepped a couple spaces away to avoid the reach of the starving Hollow.
Folding the sash in half twice, Kagome quickly tied the hakama-himo over her eyes (2). She felt momentary panic when she could no longer see anything, but forced herself to relax. Her hand felt for the staff of her zanpakutou, which she had leaned up against the wall next to her – Rai'Rinne was busy complaining that she was not some mop to lean in a corner whenever Kagome felt like it.
Kagome cocked her head, listening for where the Hollow was in the building behind her, and then used shunpo to run back to the courtyard. She heard the Hollow emerge from the wreckage of what was once a small warehouse, growling deeply with impatience.
"Lookee here, Hollow. I can't see!" coaxed Kagome loudly, passing Rai'Rinne teasingly back and forth in her hands in front of her.
She swallowed when she heard the Hollow hesitate; she certainly hoped the Hollow was desperate enough to attack her, because it certainly wasn't stupid.
There was a barely-audible sound of the Hollow taking a step. Then there was nothing, until Kagome dodged out of the way when she heard air rushing against the soul-eater's body. It was coming for her, fast. With no time to retaliate, Kagome had no choice but to get out of the way and try again.
Taking up a defensive stance, Kagome became serious in her tactic to listen for the Hollow. She was quiet except for her breathing, which she thought was too loud. Her blue eyes searched blindly for something that they wouldn't see even if she hadn't been blindfolded. Sweat began to soak into Rai'Rinne's hilt, and Kagome gripped her zanpakutou even tighter; it would be embarrassing and probably fatal if she tried to slice at the Hollow and her weapon went flying out of her hands.
She tensed very slightly when she heard the silent Hollow move again, this time from behind her. Swallowing, she counted her breaths to steady herself. The sound of air hitting a body was closer… It was almost there….
Whirling around suddenly, Kagome took the Hollow off-guard by giving a battle cry. She sliced sideways out in front of her, feeling her blade meet more resistance than wind. Smirking triumphantly, she added more strength to the slash, and the Hollow howled in pain as she sliced into it.
Just to make sure, Kagome jumped back and then lifted up her blindfold to see what damage she had caused. She smiled with relief when she saw that she had cut through the Hollow's large, white mask and that the reptilian-like Hollow was fading away into nothingness. Soon the air where the Hollow had stood was empty, though the Hollow's scream of agony still echoed in Kagome's ears.
Kagome sank to her knees when she suddenly felt drained. All of the adrenaline that had been keeping her going was gone; her limbs began to shake visibly. With a shaking hand, the Thirteeth Division's lieutenant removed her makeshift blindfold and set her zanpakutou down. Rai'Rinne reverted back to her sealed form with a soft, golden glow, seeming to give a small sigh of contentment as she did so.
"Stupid Hollow…" Kagome muttered, ruffling her disheveled hair unconsciously.
She changed positions, drawing her knees up and resting her arms loosely against her kneecaps. Her eyes felt heavy from drowsiness. The pain in her back had faded to a dull throb, though she could feel a pump of wetness there every time her heart beat.
'So tired,' thought Kagome, her head nodding forward slightly.
"I don't think ya wanna do that," came an annoying familiar voice from nearby.
Sluggishly, Kagome turned her head around and saw that Ichimaru Gin was standing on the roof of the building next to her. The breeze was ruffling his captain's haori and his silver – tinged with purple in certain light – hair. Like whenever Kagome saw him, he was smirking.
Feeling a sudden rush of anger, Kagome's face managed to turn red with fury and embarrassment.
"You!" she spat, pointing up at him. "You stole my first kiss, fox-face!"
Ichimaru's smirk widened with what seemed to be pleasure.
Then he bowed, sweeping his arm out like a gentleman, and said, "It was my honor to take it, Kagome-chan."
"I oughta–!" began Kagome, and then the sound of running and shouting caught her attention, drawing her eyes away from the lean figure of the Third Division's captain.
A few seconds later, a squadron of shinigami – lead by Kiyone and Sentarou – burst into the courtyard. Glancing back up at the roof, Kagome frowned when she saw that Ichimaru had disappeared.
'Skulking bastard,' thought Kagome sourly, her head starting to feel slightly dizzy.
"Higurashi-fukutaichou!" called Sentarou urgently, running over to her with Kiyone close behind; besides these two, everyone else seemed perplexed to see their second-in-command just sitting on the ground.
"Hiya, Sentarou-san!" said Kagome, smiling and waving at her subordinate.
"The Hollow! Did you dispatch it already?" asked Kiyone, skidding to a halt beside Kagome alongside Sentarou.
"Yep!" said Kagome, smiling giddily; her head felt so light…
Kiyone gasped when she saw the blood on Kagome's hands, face, and sash. Looking behind her superior, she saw with a huge amount of horror that the back of Kagome's shihakushou was shredded and soaked in blood.
"Higurashi-fukutaichou!" cried Kiyone, kneeling beside Kagome and touching the other's back gently. "You're injured!"
Not about to be shown up by his co-Seat, Sentarou kneeled down opposite of Kiyone and said, "Yes, you're injured!"
The two sent each other a glare.
With nothing to say to the oh-so-obvious statement, Kagome giggled hysterically. She suddenly found the whole situation that she was in to be immensely hilarious and burst out laughing. She began to feel so giddy that she felt she could laugh all day.
"Higurashi-fukutaichou…?" said Kiyone, looking scared. "Are you okay…?"
"Of course she's not okay, baka (idiot)!" snapped Sentarou. "The blood loss has gone to her head!"
The fact that Sentarou wasn't agreeing with or trying to best Kiyone set Kagome off big time. She laughed so loud and so hard that tears began to roll down her cheeks. Leaning forward to catch her breath after a minute or so, she was suddenly overwhelmed by a bout of dizziness and darkness began to creep into her vision.
"Oh no," said Kagome softly, snickering. "I'm going to faint…"
Then the darkness consumed her and she knew no more.
Owari
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Author's Notes
(1) I got the idea of a scythe from the Western image of the Grim Reaper: cloak, scythe, skeleton, etc.
(2) This was inspired, for some reason, by Riku from Kingdom Hearts, when he had to wear the blindfold to suppress his inner darkness.
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Did you like my version of Kagome's zanpakutou? Please tell me you did! T.T
Until next time, ja ne! ^o^ – HO HO HO! MERRY CHRISTMAS!
