Blackout2010: Well, hello everyone to the next chapter of the story
Ichigo: Really? No joke.
Blackout2010:…well yeah really.
Rukia: Really?
Blackout2010: Yes, really!
Uryu: Are you sure?
Blackout2010: YES! Geez, I already learned that simply posting an acknowledgment is a very bad thing, and I won't do it again.
Uryu: whatever you say…
Blackout2010:…your all assholes.
Senna: But…
Blackout2010: No, that doesn't include you
Senna: (^u^)/
I don't own anything.
Ch.12 Awful night near death
It had been about three days since the incident with Uryu, and so far the team hadn't made any significant progress in being rescued or in figuring out the Quincy mystery as Uryu hadn't shown up for school since that day.
Today was Sunday which meant no school for Senna, who lazily turned the page in the magazine she was reading at the kitchen table since she had to stay nearby, cooped up inside the apartment along with the other two soul reapers in case of a hollow attack, despite the sunny weather outside.
Senna glanced over at Rukia who was busy devising a fool proof, emphasis on fool when she said it to Ichigo, plan to not only get rescued quicker but how to bring down the Quincy in case he tried to attack them. Right now she was working on the graphic designs of the battle plan, so it could be more easily understood and explained, though Ichigo still said it sucked which earned another whack to the back of his head as he was cooking dinner for the team.
"Now, I'm of consenting age to be forgetting you in a cabera some where downtown a burlesque may even ask my name (1)" Senna cell phone's ringtone went off as she picked it up to answer the phone "Hello?" She asked "Oh hey how have you been?" her excitement rising from hearing from her friend "Uhuh. No, not much. Really? Ok. Tonight? Sure I'll see you then!" conversed Senna getting Ichigo and Rukia's attention since she hardly ever made plans to go out.
Hanging up the phone, Senna jumped up from her chair "Guys guess what." She asked rhetorically
"What?" Rukia asked, wondering why she was in such a happy mood
"My good friend just called in and asked for my help for his show tonight!" she said excitedly, already mentally picking out her attire for the evening, so she could look stylish next to him on his adventure
"What show is this exactly?" Ichigo asked curiously since he had never been on a T.V. stage before and heard it was 'all the rage'
"Don Kannoji's wander spirit's channel!" she answered getting a deer in the headlights look from the guy, who honestly didn't expect something like that nor her elation on the subject "Oh you'll love it it's all about ghosts and spirit sightings. He's super popular!"
"And people buy that?" Ichigo asked skeptically
Senna huffed herself up at his attitude on the show "How can you be so cynical you're a ghost yourself!"
"It's not that I'm cynical it's just well, I heard most human follow the phrase 'Seeing is believing' and not everyone can see ghost like you can." Said Ichigo, trying to calm down the land lady, though he did recall that a lot of people here had higher spiritual energy than normal so maybe it would be easier for it to fly among Karakura, but maybe not everywhere else
"Fine, then you can come with me and Rukia-chan. And you'll see just how great Don Kannoji really is." The ribbon wearing girl said matter-of-factly, crossing her arms as she threw down the gauntlet at Ichigo
"I think we should go." said Rukia throwing in her two cents "It beats sitting in the house all day, plus I'm kind of interested in this little proposal AND since it's two to one vote we're going and that's final." Using the majority ruling that Ichigo had established earlier against him forcing his cooperation on this
'I guess staying wound up won't do any good.' Ichigo sighed exhaustedly "Fine…whatever…" giving up on the endeavor and just going with the flow since the two stubborn women wouldn't budge once they made up their mind.
(That Night)
"Come on! Pick up the pace we don't want to be late!" instructed the eager Senna, who was dressed in a black evening shirt with a red short sleeved jacket on top and a pair of pants that had stripes of silver and black running down it vertically.
"We're coming we're coming!" grumbled Ichigo as he had been enduring for the past two hours the constant blabbering of how great Don Kannoji is, which annoyed him even more when Senna actually got Rukia into it, even going so far as to do this weird creepy ass laugh with their arms crossed, that reminded him of those laughing skeleton head's he heard people put out on Halloween.
Ichigo took a glance back at his powerless partner and remembered why he wasn't looking at her. She was wearing the traditional skirt from Senna's school but the black shirt she wore with it said 'The Spirits are always with you!' much to Ichigo's annoyance since he didn't want to be reminded of work when they were supposed to be relaxing, even if he did have to be in Shinigami attire with Zangetsu strapped to his back.
"Look its right there!" Senna pointed excitedly at a huge metal trailer parked right outside of an abandoned hospital, which had spot lights pointing at the entranceway of the Hospital and trailer entrance.
Slowly, well for Ichigo since the other two practically ran towards it on sight, got to the trailer and Senna knocked on it and rather girlishly squealed out "Don Kannoji! It's me Senna and I brought some friends!"
The metal door of the trailer opened inwardly, and thick smokish-fog started to pour out of it, suddenly several bright lights beamed on blinding the team. Then they saw the silhouette of a man with his arms stretched out to his side like he was some kind of rock star. He took about two steps forward so Ichigo and company could see him despite the blinding spot lights.
"SENNA! My number one apprentice it us most fortuitous that the spirits allowed you to accompany me this lovely night!" the dark bizarre looking man said to the girl
As Ichigo took a closer look the man was extremely tan almost black, he had on a thick customized jacket that had the kanji for spirit king across the front which was separated by the zipper, he wore some thick coke bottle shades which was probably the only reason he was able to see them. His knee ripped jeans was apparently supposed to make him hip for the younger viewers.
'Great, another weirdo.' The strawberry thought rudely about this…whatever he was supposed to be
'What the fuck is that thing!' his inner hollow asked in his typical manner when addressing people he barely knew and didn't have an interest in 'Can I kill this guy? He looks like a gay lesbian that had a bad sex change!'
"It great to see you again Kannoji-Sensei!" the exuberant Senna said embracing the man in a hug. She then turned around with her hand still on the guys shoulder to introduce her new friends "Sensei, these are my friends Rukia."
The announced girl stepped forward and gave a curtsy bow "It's a pleasure to meet you, Kannoji-san."
The African American (A/N: I'm guessing) put his hand upon her head and ruffled her hair lightly "And I you. May the blessing of the spirits be upon you, young one."
"And the guy next to her is-"
"A bad spirit!" the man yelled pulling out his trusty spirit cane of justice, after seeing the frowning mug of Ichigo who now sported a tick mark on his head
"I'm one of the good guys." He said snidely, kind of wishing the guy was a fake in his ability to see spirits so he wouldn't be disturbed. "Just my luck." He whispered to himself
"No, you feel like a BAAAAD Spirit." He said dramatically getting concerned looks from the girls, while ignoring the previous statements made by the man
"Don Kannoji-san! That's our friend, you don't think…" said Rukia getting caught up in the mystique that was Don Kannoji
"Hmm. Yes. It is I'm afraid." The man nodded solemnly, pulling down his glasses so Rukia could see into his eyes, a look of sadness was held inside of them for the fate he would have to break to the young women "Your friend has been possessed by an evil spirit!"
'I take my criticism back. I think he's talking about you.'
'What! I'm people friendly…well…after their dead of course…'
"Girls. I want you to listen to me and run away should this spirit turn violent." Don said heroically, taking a step forward and gripping his cane firmly in both his hands, ready to smite the pulsating evil within the man
"Alright." The women said taking a few steps back to give the man some room, to perform an exorcism on their comrade.
Don Kannoji took in a quick inhalation of air "huuuuuahhhh!" he yelled out, his to Ichigo's understanding, barely acknowledgeable spiritual pressure rose just a fraction "Bad spirit be gone, leave this one alone! Return to him his youthful strength and might, All you spirits out there hear my plight. Let the spirit that haunts him see the righteous way, please get rid of the spirit today! Bad Spirit be gone! Bad Spirit!" He thrusted his cane at Ichigo "BEEEGOOONE!
Ichigo looked at the man skeptically, unable to believe this guy hasn't been locked up yet. While he did start to feel a bit lighter after the…performance he wasn't going to admit it lest he egg him on further.
"Oh, ahh t-thank-you Don Kannoji-san! I feel so much better." he said happily playing the part of the saved victim
"Oh thank-you for saving our friend Don Kannoji-san!" said Rukia as she glomped Ichigo, with a sickeningly sweet smile letting him know she was going to thoroughly enjoy this outing.
"Way to go Sensei! You saved another one!"
"(sigh) Yes, I have my dear Senna." He said happily pulling down his glasses to clean them, while he stared into the night sky "But there are far far more spirits in need of our help." He turned back to Senna, and placed his hand on her shoulder dramatically "Should I fall before my task is done, I leave it to you Senna Kurosaki to finish my work."
"Of-Of Course Sensei!" replied Senna, a waterfall of tears coming down her face for her master putting on such a noble and just crusade against the corruption that plagued the afterlife.
"Now, now my dear. Take heart. For today will not be that day as I have many friends with me to help support my never ending endeavor."
"(Sniff) oh,…okay." She answered, whipping away the tears still in her eyes with her sleeve
"Good!" he said merrily jumping back to his feet "Now let us advance into the hospital!"
The three soul reapers looked into the hospital and felt an energy signature inside of it. Ichigo looked back at Rukia, who nodded at Senna. "Excuse me, Don Kannoji-san. But we were wondering if Senna could change her cloths real quick as they aren't entirely suited to the hospital." lied Rukia
The man gave a firm nod as he continued looking at the building "Very well, but hurry back. The spirits will not resolve themselves."
Rukia and Senna ran back around the trailer, and quickly forced her out of her body and ditched it underneath the trailer so no one would mess with it, while Ichigo flash stepped back around the outside area to see if anyone or anything else was surrounding it before returning to the apartment to get any medical supplies for the 'trip'. When they had gathered all their gear for whatever was inside they walked back to the self-proclaimed spirit king, like nothing was wrong.
"Alright we're ready to go!" the soul reapered Senna hollered to her sensei, still maintaining her excitement even though they might be walking into a battle, so as not to alert or scare the man
Don Kannoji looked back at the assembled team eyeing the team of sharp looking individuals "Hmm, you look very lovely in that outfit Senna-chan. Is it some kind of school club thing? Because it also looks very professional" assessed the man, having never seen her wear those clothing before
"Kind of sorta. Anyway I wanted to ahh fit the role of a body guard for you. You know someone you can count on." The female Kurosaki half-lied to her sensei
"Hmm. That would be most welcomed, though I wish it will be I doing my best to protect you my number one pupil." He looked over to Rukia, who while outwardly looked the same had taken a small pill to help focus her spiritual power "Ms. Kuchiki was it? Could you by chance videotape our findings tonight?"
"Sure, I would love too." She answered with a sweet smile as she grabbed the bulky device, while she eyed it curiously having never seen of such a device.
"Excellent, now let us GOOO!" he yelled at the top of his lungs as he charged to the entrance way like a maniac
'Why am I doing this?' Ichigo thought with a sweat drop, unable to believe that he had to be associated with that idiot
'This so exciting!' Senna thought after seeing her Sensei's courageous charge forward
'How does this thing work?' Rukia thought as she turned the device on it's side and gripped the opening for the hand
(Inside Hospital)
"Excellent, we have infiltrated the ghost's territory to all those watching out there." informed Don Kannoji as he faced the camera. "Now we shall proceed further in an vanquish the spirits!" the man continued to narrate
So the Spirit team moved through the abandoned hallways, carefully since some parts of the building were structurally unsound not that it deterred the Spirit Whack from commenting on how evil spirits were trying to intimidate them to leave by making the shadows bigger or making some of the pipes in the ceiling creak or sputter from disuse.
As they continued through the hallways, the truly spiritually sensitive of the group felt the unknown signature move again this time much closer. It moved seemingly past them and stopped just ahead of the hallway they were in.
'I hope whatever's moving around isn't hostile. I can't swing Zangetsu in here.' Ichigo noted concernedly, since a good horizontal or vertical slash would be impossible 'Maybe I could draw it though and thrust it, if I'm careful…'
"Alright Children. We are going to advance forward as I have felt a disturbance of the energies around us. Something is waiting us ahead. Let us go forward for Justice!" the African American whispered vibrantly to the audience who was watching at home. He continued on ahead acting like the macho team leader that he apparently thought he was.
"Hey Senna" called Ichigo. The girl turned around to face the other Kurosaki, and nodded her head when he mouthed to be ready for anything.
As Don Kannoji opened the door, the Shinigami team kept their senses on full alert and slowly Senna reached for her weapon, while Ichigo and Rukia charged up a small kido spell. As they carefully walked inside the energy signature remained in place, Don Kannoji squinted his eyes trying to see through the darkness as he felt someone or something was in here with them.
Don Kannoji with an unusually serious face turned and nodded to the Shinigami's not seeing the kido spells only Senna's blade. "On three." He whispered quietly to the team.
"1…2…3!" He exclaimed jumping on top of a nearby table "Reveal yourself dark specter." Pointing his cane ahead towards a table turned on its side, while Ichigo and Rukia launched their kido spells at it destroying the obstruction.
"Oh! Oops. Guess I don't know my own strength. Hehe sorry." Don Kannoji said sheepishly, since he clearly didn't mean to destroy any property, and only wanted to draw the apparition out though he failed to realize it wasn't his strength that did the damage. "Hmm? Who that?" he questioned placing a hand against his forehead to peer better when he saw someone approaching them from the other side of the smoke.
As the person approached the team saw strands of blue hair bob with each step taken. The white shirt the person wore stuck out immediately in contrast to the surrounding darkness which explains why it was hidden behind the table. While there brown pants were illuminated by the blue light stretching from their hand.
"Uryu!" said Senna recognizing her fellow classmate
"Hmph. So we meet again soul reapers, and it seems you brought reinforcements." The boy said coolly, finally meeting the apparent leader of the rag tag Shinigami team, having figured out a long time ago that Senna was in no way shape or form a Shinigami, since he had never sensed that energy signature emit from her until recently.
"Wait! Is this the guy who attacked you?" Ichigo pointed out having remembered being told about a Quincy taking aim at Senna three days ago.
"I don't know what lies have been getting spread around, not that I'm surprised by Soul Society Shinigami, but for your information she just happen to be in the line of fire which she put herself voluntarily in as I was fine with dealing with the hollow by myself." He said condescendingly ruffling the feather's of Senna for her attempts at trying to 'help' him.
"Hey it's our job to help others."
"Really?" he said with evil intrigue as he glanced towards Don Kannoji "From what I can tell you've brought a man with barely any spiritual abilities to me, someone with great powers and not once did you think about sending him away for the concern of his safety? That sounds rather reckless." He then shrugged like he didn't care "But I suppose that all Soul Society Shinigami can do, endanger and condemn others to death despite their innocence."
Senna looked down and away from Uryu, as she couldn't argue since the Shinigami did commit Genocide against his people so she could understand his anger on that one. Rukia started to set the camera down so she could participate if a fight broke out.
"Look, Uryu. We're sorry for what happened to your people, but were not ones responsible. All we're, being Rukia and I, trying to do now is protect as many souls as we can while were down here."
"I see. Then how about a little challenge." He put his hand into his pocket and pulled out a small white cube about the size of a cell phone. Ichigo's and Rukia's eyes widened at seeing what was in the man's hand, while a sly smile graced his face "Oh so you recognize this? I'm sure you would it is hollow bait after all."
"Hollow Bait? Is that a fish?" Don Kannoji asked not able to follow the entire conversation at all, though he figured it must have been some kind of drug from it's appearance which made the boy in front of him a delinquent
"H-hollow Bait?" questioned Senna fearfully at what its name obviously implied 'ooooh no.'
Uryu ignored them and continued speaking with Rukia and Ichigo "The challenge is this: if you can protect Don Kannoji and safely get him to the rooftop of this hospital, I promise to no longer interfere with you all provide you leave me be. "
"And if we lose?" asked Ichigo getting ready for the unavoidable challenge the Quincy was preparing
"I get to kill you Shinigami." He said simply getting a nervous look from Senna as she really didn't want to die. Which seemed to egg the boy on further "But I'll give you a handicap, I'll assist you in protecting Don Kannoji but if I kill more hollows then all three of you combined, again I kill you. What do you say? Not that you have a choice?"
"We accept." answered Ichigo, going over a few precautions with the games rules, knowing that they couldn't leave Don Kannoji alone to kill hollows but their limitations in close quarters was their disadvantage as Uryu could hit the enemy from the other side of the hallway if he so wished, though the fact he'd help protect Don Kannoji as well gave a small margin of error. 'Once Kannoji's on the roof, I can use my flash step unrestrained and get him out of here before dealing with Uryu.'
"Good. We're currently on the first floor. That means we have two more floors left before we reach the top and the stairs are down the hallway opposite of the cafeteria, so back the way you came." informed the blue haired Quincy as he adjusted his glasses and resummoned his bow. "Let the hunt begin." And he crushed the small white tablet in his hand until dust remained.
"GGGGrrraaahhh!" the scream of a hollow pierced the silence in the abandoned hospital, and within a few more moments more monstrous roars and howls began to exude throughout the building, echoing down all of the hallways.
Senna whipped the sweat off her forehead that had started to build from realizing that they were in for one heck of a night as she had never heard that many hollows at once, she turned back and saw that Don Kannoji wasn't fairing any better as his knees were visibly shaking, he apparently was spiritually aware enough to have heard it too. "Hey d-don't worry Sensei. We'll keep you safe…" Senna said nervously with a forced smile to alleviate his anxiety, not that she believed it would help him since she didn't believe it herself.
Don Kannoji nodded nervously, while he may not know what's was really going on he knew for certain that this was NOT part of the show anymore. Ichigo put a hand on Don Kannoji's shoulder and gave a firm look to silently reassure him for all the good it did. "Alright, Senna since your blade is smaller and usable in these corridors you'll have to take point. Rukia, you back her up." He ordered using this brief moment to organize them all before things got complicated and people started getting hurt. "As for me, I'll stay close to Kannoji and keep an eye on the asshole who put us in this situation."
The team took their positions, with a bit of reluctance on Uryu's part as he didn't like being ordered around by a Shinigami of all things, and slowly began their dangerous trek through the not so abandoned hospital.
'Hey, King why don't you take the freak show through the front door and escape? It couldn't be that hard.' asked Hichigo not fully understanding why he was going through all of this shit just to get out, when they would be passing by the front door on their way to the stairs anyway
'Simple. If we go through the front door, we could get ambushed from above and the sides by the summoned hollows.' He mentally replied back to the specter all the while keeping his eyes peeled for any sudden movements in the shadows, the movements of the enemy 'besides even IF I got away with Don Kannoji and that's assuming the hollows don't chase after me. I'd have to leave an inexperienced Senna and powerless Rukia alone with a hoard of hungry hollows and Homicidal Quincy. At least if we get to the roof, we can hold our ground and escape easier with a flash step.'
Ichigo glanced over to the side where Don Kannoji was walking cautiously, ready to run at a moment's notice, which didn't surprise Ichigo. Since they were surrounded by hollows in narrow corridors and trying to pinpoint where they were was useless since they could be above them or below maybe even…
Boom! The wall crumbled in as a pair of white arms shot through it trying to grab Don Kannoji and pull him into the waiting embrace of the hungry monster on the other side. Ichigo responded quickly and used his muscular arms to pull the struggling spirit detective from it's death grip while, the ever calm Quincy shot his arrows rapidly into the hole.
The hands retracted back inside, the pain being too much for the beast. Too bad for it Ichigo wasn't going to allow it to leave alive. He pushed Don Kannoji over to Senna and Rukia, who were keeping an eye out for anymore surprises while Uryu and Ichigo dealt with the wall attacker, and threw a kido spell inside of the crack barricade.
A horrible roar was heard from the other side then suddenly silence fell upon the group. Not feeling anything trying to bite his hand he retracted his arm and gave it a light shake to make sure it was still fine, seeing that it was he looked over at Senna who was shaking in fright by the unexpected attack.
"That's one for you, Shinigami." Uryu commented casually as he adjusted his glasses, also like Ichigo not entirely surprised that the hollows would try anything to eat them.
'This guy's pretty callous. I just hope he doesn't betray us, if we win…or get out of here.'
Forming back up, the team began walking much more alertly and avoiding hugging the walls in case one of them reached through again, though it was considerable more cramped with the five people closely together. Coming up to a four way intersection, Senna and Rukia separated to both sides of it, while Ichigo moved in front of Don Kannoji to protect him, while Uryu released his bow again ready to take aim, and even the score since he was behind.
As the female pair edged closer, Senna raised her weapon close to her chest while Rukia had her left hand which contained her spell back a bit so as not to let the light give away their position. When Senna peeked around the corner she hastily and silent moved back around into cover having seen one hollow down her pathway, the ribbon wearing Shinigami carefully lifted up one of her fingers up signaling to Rukia who nodded and looked down her way taking aim at the target.
"Hadou 31: Soukatsui!" she yelled launching the fire spell at the unsuspecting hollow who turned to face them once the war cry had been heard.
The spell hit the lizard looking hollow in the shoulder as it nimbly jerked its body to the side as it began to charge forward, it locked on hungrily on Rukia who was chanting up her next spell. As soon as it hit the corner, Senna swung her sword slashing the arm of the creature which reflexive jumped back not expecting an ambush.
The skirmish was abruptly ended when an energy arrow went flying in between Rukia and Senna and slammed into the mask of the creature destroying it. The two girls looked back and saw Uryu with his bow pointed in between the space between Ichigo's and Don Kannoji's head. "You two took too long, the point is mine. One to One."
The team turned back to continue down the corridor, not too thrilled that Uryu was treating this whole life or death thing like a game, when the building started to rattle and shake causing some of the dust to begin to fall from the windowsills. The tremor continued for another twenty or so seconds before the shaking stopped.
The team cautiously glanced around making sure nothing was going to be coming down on them since they were still in an abandoned and possibly structurally unsafe building. "Looks like it's passed. Let keep moving and get out of here." Said Ichigo wanting to get out of this spot even more after that little show
"Still that's a little odd" commented Senna as she turned back down the hallway they were following, keeping an eye out for trouble "we don't normally get earthquakes out here."
"Whatever it's fine." said Uryu, as he started to move forward in order to maintain his short distance behind Ichigo and Don Kannoji. The blue haired boy then abruptly stopped when Ichigo turned around facing him, his eyes narrowed. The orange haired man took a few menacing steps towards him, when Uryu drew his bow and pointed it directly at the man ready to fill him with arrows.
What surprised the Quincy was when Ichigo walked around him like a stranger would in a crowd of people. Uryu as well as everyone else turned around looking at Ichigo in confusion for his strange behavior. He kept walking just a few more feet before he stopped and turned back around to face them. His serious face broke away into a carefree smile. "I just thought I heard something." He said honestly throwing his arms out care freely, as he looked away from them and at the wall.
"Why didn't you just say that?" Uryu asked dryly, not amused that he actually felt threatened that the man would try and cut him down in the middle of things. "Don't try such a stup-"
He never got to finish as Ichigo quickly jumped over to the wall on his left and seemingly grabbed something, which the other couldn't see. The man threw whatever was being held in his hand down on the ground violently and gave it a swift kick, which shocked the others when the leg stopped in mid-air and a thud sound could be heard back down the way they came.
Not wasting a second Ichigo jumped on the invisible foe and started to beat it with his fists pounding away until the scream of a hollow was heard as a reptile-like creature appeared in front of all of them. "Just as I thought, a chameleon class hollow." He said aloud to the others, specifically to Uryu since it was about to jump him from behind. Ichigo brought his index finger to the center mask of the struggling creature "Byakurai!" he commanded as a white light shot from his digit and blew a small but noticeable hole through the hollow killing it and causing it to evaporate.
Get back up from his little tussle with the chameleon, Ichigo turned back to the group "Alright now we can keep moving." passing by Uryu without a second glance as he returned to his position next to Don Kannoji.
"Wait, Shinigami." Uryu called out stopping Ichigo who turned his head back to the archer "Why did you do that? You could have just let it get me." he asked analytically since it would make infinitely more sense to kill two birds with one stone by allowing the creature to kill him and then take it out.
"Simple." He turned away from him and back to the girls in front of him his eyes watching them to alert him to anything else slippery "It's my job to protect souls, all of them, regardless if they're assholes or not. Besides she'd yell at me if I let someone die so needlessly when I could have done otherwise, as unnecessary death is just as bad as failing a mission in her eyes."
He started to walk forward ignoring the looks of confusion from everyone for his words. He got in two more steps before the building once again started to rumble and shake, but this time much more violently. As the tremors grew worse and worse Ichigo made Don Kannoji kneel down to the ground in the fetal position while he used his arm to balance himself against the wall, Uryu was standing by himself despite the shaking, Rukia had fully hugged the wall determined to not lose her balance and Senna had fell down to the ground being caught unawares of the sudden tremor.
Crrakk…
Ichigo despite his shaking body looked backwards, as did Uryu who also heard the cracking sound behind them. While it was too dark to see what was cracking it was definitely something very close to their position, with each passing second the tremors got even worse and then suddenly stopped.
BOOM!
Something erupted from the floor about twenty or so feet behind Uryu. Ichigo called up a Shakkaho and launched it down the dark path and saw it fly down until it connected with something very large.
The large creature that the fire illuminated briefly was seemingly crawling on the floor but filled up to about waist height, it had on a insect-looking mask with golden eyes but what really stuck out was the giant teeth and large gaping mouth on the creature.
'A giant centipede! In here!' Ichigo noted and took a quick glance at the length of the hallway. He yelled out to the others panic in his voice "Everybody run to the stairs. If that thing catches you it'll swallow you whole!"
Not wasting a second the Spirit team picked themselves up making a mad dash for the stair well hoping the creature wouldn't be able to follow them to the next floor, while the Giant creature let out a menacing roar and stampeded off chasing after it's meal ticket.
"Ichigo we got two hollows up ahead!" cried out Senna as her sword dangled at her side ready to deliver a horizontal swipe at the creatures
Ichigo quickly launched another spell at the 100 ft wall of death behind them "Attack them as you run by! But no matter what happens don't stop moving, try and cripple them so they can't move!" he looked back at the still on coming creature, as he put more effort into keeping a nice distance between him "Maybe this thing will find them more edible than us."
As the squad advanced towards the creatures, Senna sliced the chest of one of the rat looking hollows while Uryu shot into the other creatures legs as Rukia shot her Hadou into it's arm to prevent any counter attack. Senna's hollow disappeared the pain being too much for it to handle and it evaporated, allowing the group to run on that side of the hall avoiding the other creature.
The team kept running forward as hard as they could and didn't dare look back when they heard a very loud scream from behind them and the sound of something being crunched and grounded up, while the splashing of liquid more than likely blood splatter against the walls and floor.
The brief pause of silence was again filled with the noise on hundreds of insect like feet coming up from behind them.
"Look the door to the stairs!" Uryu pointed out, hoping the creature behind them would be too big to fit into such a narrow vertical spacing.
When Senna reached the door she tried to open it but to no avail, her eyes looked back at the group "It's jammed guys! Give me a hand!"
The panicking and desperate group all rushed over and began to push and hit the door trying to unhinge it while the rustling of feet got even closer. Uryu hearing the noise turned back around to the pitch black hallway "You guys focus on the door I'll slow it down with my arrows!" as he charged up his bow and began his assault aiming wildly down the path hoping to hit it's eyes or something sensitive and give them a chance to escape
'Damn it! It won't budge.' Ichigo concluded fiercely as his specialized kick from the second division did little to budge it. He jumped away from the door and leaned over so he could pull out Zangetsu from his shoulder 'Then let's try harder!'
Ichigo ran forward and performed a thrust forward, which knocked the metal door off it's hinges and crashed into the wall. "Everybody in!" he yelled out, as they all ran ahead of him to 'ascend from darkness' as soon as Ichigo's foot touched the metal of the stairs, he saw the creature finally emerge from the darkness and head straight for him. The blood of the previous meal on it's bone crushing mandibles.
Ichigo quickly ran up the first flight of stairs and breathed a sigh of relief, knowing the creature wouldn't be able to follow them in such a narrow shaft. He was only partially right.
The creature kept charging forward and broke through the wall that the unhinged door had been leaning against, creating a giant sized hole as it went skittering through it.
'Fuuuuck. Why do I get the feeling this isn't over yet.' He thought as he ran the up to the second floor to meet the group. As he pushed open the door he saw that all of them weren't looking at him, happy to know he was still alive, but were instead looking directly out the window in front of them in fear. The Shinigami turned his head to the left and his jaw started to drop as he saw against the windows hundreds of insect like feet going across the glass in an upward arc and possible around the building.
'Persistent bitch isn't it!'
"Tell me…" Don Kannoji started his eyes still glued to the window watching the hazy blur move across it "can we exorcise this bad spirit before it reaches the city?"
"It's questionable at this point in time." answered Uryu, whose façade of aloofness was dropped "The bait usually attracts many small ones not one big one and some food for it." he turned back to the 'leader' "Ichigo, more than likely there won't be any more hollows here as we've killed about six or seven so far now we just need to deal with this creature."
"I know." replied Ichigo, as he was thinking on how to pull through this dangerous situation. "Well that creature will eat us if were directly in front of it as it charges forward, so we need to fight it in an area with a lot of room to move around in so we can keep out of it's striking distance."
"The roof…" whispered Senna already figuring out where this was going
Rukia nodded her head in agreement with her senior "You do have a point. At the roof top we can hopefully see it coming and avoid it when it passes by and because of it's size it wouldn't be able to turn readily, giving us the advantage."
"While this theory is all well and good, this is assuming that it doesn't have any form of counterattack or is inflexible as it looks." commented Uryu throwing his two cents into the battle plan, since he'd get roped into since he was distance attacker, and pretty responsible for what happened "Not to mention we'd have to leave Don Kannoji somewhere, since he'd be dead weight to us."
The spirit man 'Hmphed' because while he knew he was useless, the bespectacled boy didn't need to remind him of it.
"I can watch him while you guys deal with the creature." said Senna stepping up to guard duty, since her kido magic was probably weaker than Rukia's and she only had 10 days of very basic training and two hollow encounters under her belt.
"Alright if it's-" Ichigo started but suddenly stopped as he looked back out the window of the building. He took a few steps closer to it and peered out since the leg train had past.
"What are you-"
"Shh!" he hushed still looking into the distance at one of the buildings, particularly at the top of it. He strained his eyes further getting a better look, before a breath of air escaped him.
He saw it. He saw 'him'. Ichigo's hand slammed into the wall an audible thump was heard to the others. 'So you finally show yourself, Grand Fisher!' he noted, not once forgetting the description of the creature who robbed him of his mother. Ichigo's face contorted to pure hate, as he knew he couldn't do anything to that creature, since it would mean abandoning not only his team to the creature but possibly Karakura as well, which would be completely intolerable.
"Is everything ok?" asked Senna worried, since she had never seen Ichigo lose his temper like that before
"It's nothing" he lied in a frigid tone, that sent a shiver up the group's spine "It's nothing at all." He turned back to the stairs and started walking to it "Uryu, Rukia let's go."
The two called looked at Ichigo warily, one for wondering if he would have to take him down should he turn on him the other not understanding what caused such a violent outburst like that, but they complied none-the-less heading up the stairs to deal with the bug problem. While Senna and Don Kannoji entered one of the nearby rooms to ambush any hollows that might still be lurking around.
(Roof top)
Ichigo kicked the door leading to the roof of off it's hinges, his rage still coursing through his body as he stalked out Zangetsu coming clean from it's spot now that it had enough space to do some damage.
Uryu and Rukia arrived a moment later, as they each charged up their weapons and took a place behind Ichigo in a small triangular formation, so as to cover each other's flanks.
The constant scratching, crunching and rumbling of feet and debris could be heard all around them. The teams eyes were darting around looking towards the edges of the building trying to see where the monster would come from but not a single one of them daring to get close to it lest they meet the same fate as the hollow from the hallway, because it popped up in front of them from it's hanging to the sides.
"Grroonnngggah!" the creature yelled the cry causing the team to wince from the sheer volume as it turned it's head unto the roof top, trying to locate it's prey that had barely escaped it's hungry jaws earlier
"There it is!" Ichigo yelled out as the strike team released a volley of kido magic and reishi arrows, at the behemoth.
The arrows and kido bursts hit the one of white plated side of the creature, doing very minimal damage to it, as the creature skirted on to the top of the building and charged forward it's teeth ready to sink into their delicious souls.
Do to being smaller and more agile than the creature, the team scattered away from the on-coming hollow as it continued going forward as ended up crawling back down the sides of the building once again hiding from sight, as it prepared to try again.
"It seems our attacks aren't strong enough to damage it from the sides" commented Rukia, since even if she was weakened the combination strike from Ichigo and Uryu should have at least phased it
"Then we'll have to take a risk and aim for it's head as it passes by" Ichigo said knowing that perhaps it's seemingly unarmored head would be more sensitive to their attacks "Uryu, you and Rukia are better at distance fighting then me, so you take aim while I distract it." he explained his basic but new plan, acting the part of decoy since he would be naturally faster than the other two because of the training from squad two.
Seeing the two nod he took a few more steps away from them to isolate himself and get the creatures attention, the assault team furthered the distance by jumping on top of the top of the roofs doorway and started searching with their eyes ready to take out the creature. Seeing that they were in position, the decoy started to make a lot of noise and yelled to get the creatures attention "Come on out! I'll blow you away in one hit!" he taunted at the hidden creature trying to goad it into resurfacing again.
Sure enough another loud roar was hear this time from the far right hand corner, as the creature rose on top of the building again, and started to charge towards Ichigo, who ran at it to continue making the monster stay focused forward. He then abruptly rolled away to the side, dodging the crushing jaws of the creature as it moved it's head to try and pick at him.
"Now!" he yelled to the heavy artillery, who unleashed another barrage of kido and arrows at the creature who had stopped to try and turn around to get Ichigo, but in advertently left it's self wide open to the attacks.
With the creature flinching from the attack Ichigo jumped on top of the armored monster's back and started swing his sword at the top side of finding it nowhere near as tough as the sides of it. As Ichigo kept hacking away from above the centipede, the creature started to shake violently to try and throw off it's rider. Ichigo stabbed Zangetsu into the creatures hide trying to anchor himself from the violently whipping hollow, as Rukia and Uryu launched another burst to damage the creature further.
The creature seeing it couldn't dislodge the Shinigami, charged forward off one of the edges to regroup from it's disastrous assault. The rider jumped off of the creature as it disappeared over the edge once again, and flash stepped back into the center of the roof top, ready to lure it back into the trap again.
The Shinigami-Quincy team's heads were moving to and forth trying to see where the creature would resurface next, all the while hearing the constant scratching of the insect's feet against the building's ancient cement and rusted metal.
"There it is to your right!" shouted Uryu alerting the others to the hollows location as he drew his bow another arrow ready to be fired.
The creature's head was poking over the guard rail as it observed them, it slowly moved it's head just past the guard rail and at the two-man team above the roof door. It's eyes narrowed slightly as it opened it's mouth and shot out a strange white substance towards Uryu, who got hit by it since they hadn't expected it to have a long range attack of it's own.
"Uggh. What is this stuff?" the struck man questioned, as he tried to brush off the stuff but only succeeded in getting his hand stuck. A horrified look came on his face as he realized that what this strange white substance was something akin to webbing that spiders used to catch prey. "Ichigo cut the strand now!" he cried out
The creature seeing it got it's target slowly started to back up down the side of the building, forcing Uryu from his perch and to crash onto the hard floor of the roof with a painful thud. Ichigo seeing that the giant insect hollow was trying to force Uryu into it's mouth via falling rushed over and hacked the connection away.
The sticky thread substance separated and the monsters head fell below the guard rail line from using too much force in reeling in nothing. Rukia jumped down from her spot and carefully used her fire Kidos to slowly burn the substance away as Ichigo was frantically keeping an eye out in case the creature tried to strike them again while they were at their weakest.
A few moments pause later and Uryu was finally free from his web binding, and he and Rukia were about to return to their position much more cognizant of the web shot. "Hey Shinigami." Uryu said with his back turned to Ichigo who was still focused on the battle with there still hidden opponent
"What is Uryu?" he answered quickly, trying to minimize their talking time since now was far from appropriate
"Thanks for watching my back." He said coldly, but gratefully. Since if not for him he'd be hollow bait himself. No pun intended.
Ichigo allowed his head to break away from his vigilant search of the enemy, and looked into the eyes of the spiritual archer, and nodded his head in silent understanding. Seeing Ichigo nod, Uryu jumped back to his spot and redrew his bow ready for some pay back against the creature who attempted to eat him.
The opportunity presented itself to the Quincy when the hollow resurfaced again eager to recatch it's lost prey. Uryu concentrating his spiritual power into his bow let fly a very powerful arrow straight into the creature's mouth causing it to sputter and chock from the attack, which was followed up by another barrage of spell from the other two Shinigami present.
The thoroughly damaged creature lowered itself unto the roof top floor and charged at Ichigo trying to kill at least one of the nuisances before it would retreat again. As the creature charged forward ready to eat the young man, Ichigo flash stepped high above it determined to send Zangetsu straight through the creature's skull.
As Ichigo came crashing down on top of the creature, it let out a piercing scream from the pain it felt. The giant centipede raised it's body with Ichigo still on top and started flailing back and forth once again trying to throw the young man off of it's body, and succeeding.
The now knocked off man came crashing down to the ground hard, momentarily stunned from the impact as he tried to roll over. The monster seeing it's chance lunged down to try and swallow the man to at last feed again.
Ichigo unable to dodge it started to charge up another kido spell to hopefully knock the creature back long enough to move away from it.
Ichigo was about half-way through the kido chant when a rectangular blood red aura appeared in front of him. Ichigo looked at it curiously as the millipede came crashing down on it, but miraculously couldn't break it even with all of it's might.
A low whistle caught the attention from the strike team, as they turned and saw the approaching form of the strange shop keeper Kisuke, with a katana in his hand. "You guys are out way past your bed times. Let me get rid of this guy for you." He said smiling knowing he'd be able secure them as his customers for life for this small act of kindness
The creature turned away from the crimson shield above Ichigo and lunged forward at Keisuke who was still maintaining his smile, despite the hulking monster rapidly approaching.
The man turned slightly and moved his blade underneath his left elbow in a stance looking like a vertical draw, as he gathered reiatsu into his right arm "Cry out, Benihime!" the Shinigami store manager said as he slashed with his sword and a red line came screaming from the sword and struck the monster in the center of it's body.
Ichigo's eyes widened in fear when he saw that the monster they had been fighting for so long was destroyed in one hit by the Shinigami supplier, he looked over at Rukia who was also surprised that the supplies man had that much strength, while Uryu didn't seem surprised by the action but more relieved that the battle was finally over.
'Could this guy be…?' Ichigo thought suspiciously of Keisuke, while the guy was sheathing his sword. The power needed to beat down such a creature easily surpassing his own which meant one thing. This man was much stronger than he let on, which pointed to only one person, the traitor Kisuke Urahara.
Keisuke turned around and walked over to Ichigo and extended his hand out to help the fallen Shinigami, to which Ichigo warily accepted, while the two marksmen jumped down from their perch and started to walk over to their comrade.
"Sooo how exactly did something that big thing show up in this town?" the blonde man asked the group with a huge smile on his face
The two Shinigami looked over at Uryu, who sighed and began to explain the situation to the man, who looked very interested over the situation.
"So long story short it's your fault?" he asked as he hid his grin behind his paper fan
"…yes grand uncle." The blue haired boy answered, getting unexpected stares from the two Shinigami who didn't even think that those two were related.
"Well, I'm going to have charge you for the bait." He said happy to get some money from his stingy grand-nephew
BAM! Uryu's clenched fist hit the top of the greedy money-makers head
"But we're close so I'll give you a discount" he amended with his grin remaining intact. The man then turned over to the other two Shinigami "As for you two I would like to say thanks for not only saving him but also minimizing damage to the city. You and the two below did a good job today."
"Even though Don Kannoji was dead weight the entire night he still gets praise?" Uryu mumbled to himself from behind the blonde man in green
"Why don't you guys come back to my place and I'll see if I can get you some money to pay for your job since this was a rather high end deal that needed to stay low."
"Well if your offering of course then." replied Rukia easily being bought over since with the money they could get some much needed supplies. She never noticed the contemplating look on Ichigo's face and his eerie silence over the length of the conversation.
"Great." the man said, nodding his head in approval. His eyes then shifted over to Ichigo who was looking back at him "Say why don't you guys go on ahead. I'm just gonna make sure that there isn't any other massive hollows running around."
"Let me help you with that Kisuke." responded Ichigo, seeing an opportunity to finally get some answers "Rukia why don't you get Senna and Kannoji and meet up with us back at his shop."
Following the two's words the rest of the team went back down the stairwell, eager to pick up the other two before getting a much needed nights rest. When the door to the roof top closed behind Uryu, Ichigo turned a hard eye back at his 'savior'.
"Who are you exactly? I want your real name Keisuke." He demanded of the man, though he had pretty much figured out if not have a good idea of his identity since that nagging feeling he had ever had around the man flared up again.
The blond supplier tilted his head considering the request "Nope." He said simply "Way I see it you owe me." When Ichigo gave a dangerous glare at the man he elaborated further "Well you see, I not only saved you but I also got rid of that beast just a few moments ago. That puts two points in my corner while you have only one which was saving my nephew."
Ichigo gritted his teeth in frustration, knowing he was too weak from all the running around and fighting to take on this guy and beat the answers out of him, not that really expected to be able to since the guy took the massive beast out in one hit, the boast he failed to live up to, and was a former captain if he was right.
"Sooo, we'll just put this as an I.O.U for now Mr. Kurosaki, which I do intend to cash-in." the man answered smugly as he placed his hand on the boy's shoulder
Ichigo's eyes went over to the hand on his shoulder before they returned to the owner's face "What's your game exactly? You left Soul Society and deal in their goods to Shinigami, why?"
"I'm just an honest business man that's all"
"By 'honest' do you mean sell your goods to people and then send out your nephew to go kill them afterward?" he accused not so lightly pushing the hand off him with the back of his hand
"Oooh! Now that's an idea that never occurred to me, perhaps I might just try that." The man said slyly, getting a sneer from the teenager "But in all seriousness no. You see Uryu is just a loving grand-nephew, and ever since Shinigami from Soul Society have been showing up at my door step he's been…a bit more guarded when it comes to my customers and acquaintances." He then tilted his hat down over his eyes "besides killing off customers is bad for business."
Ichigo could tell that this man wasn't lying, and was being perfectly honest with him…for now it seemed "One final question then"
"And that would be?"
"Keisuke Urahara…" he assumed coldly of the man's name not that he denied it "where…where is Yoruichi?" he asked, knowing that 'she' left with him, and if he was nearby that means 'she' couldn't be too far off
The man raised his eye brow at the question and then started to walk away from his accuser like he was getting away with murder. When he got to the roof top door he called out his answer to the question that was burning inside the young Shinigami "Yoruichi is at my place."
The youth's blood ran cold for few seconds, his mind repeating the words over and over again. 'Does this mean…?' he thoughts as his arms started to shake with excitement, a wide grin slowly broke across his face at the priceless information just released to him, his previous exhaustion forgotten with this surge of inexplicable energy from locating 'Her'
'I found you Yoruichi, I'll take you out for Shaolin, and then your next Grand Fisher' the carrot top Shinigami thought as he followed the shop owner down, knowing soon everything would be revealed to him
(Elsewhere)
"Sorry to say Aizen, but a bit of bad news. You know the 1/10th limiter, we added on to the already reduced kid, well it seems to have been destroyed and reset back to 1/5th again, I checked myself no one tampered with it and for some reason I can't change it back." reported in the third Taicho Gin Ichimaru as the pair walked through the Seireitei
The calm bespectacled man beside the ever grinning Gin, let out a small contented sigh "That's fine. I had hoped Plan C would have worked, but that's why we have plan D on standby and Plan E in reserve. So it makes little difference in the end."
(1) Their part of the lyrics for Panic at the Disco's 'But it's better if you do'.
Blackout2010: So end chapter 12, I hope you enjoyed it
Ichigo: I thought you said Don Kannoji wouldn't show up!
Blackout2010: When did I say this, I did mention him back in chapter 1 you know.
Don: So this is the wonderous box that connects the world to us, fuu fuu fuu, I shall now show everyone that the spirits are always with us!
Blackout2010: Yeah…you do that.
Ichigo: (I wonder if Shaolin has to deal with people like this)
Omeada: achoo!
