Comments:
Ghoul being on a different level than the Visoreds Hollows is true, because of the fact that Tsukune has Arrancar abilities. As for Hichigo rapestomping Ghoul, not in his current state. Remember, Hichigo used most of his reiatsu in the final attack against Aizen to ensure Ichigo kept his shinigami powers and is currently tired and weak. Plus with Hichigo being a Vasto Lorde level Hollow, it will take longer for him to recover enough before he is able to allow Ichigo to call his power.
I'm glad you liked the lemon; 'cause that was the first one I've ever written. And of course I wouldn't make it so that they have sex right after the 'Talk'. That would make it too easy. And I don't plan on making it easy for them to figure out who's behind the Hollow attacks on the Academy.
Back to the story,
Demon.
Xxxxxxx
It took almost an hour to explain everything to Kuyo when they took the Tsuchigumo to the Safety Committee. First the trio had to explain why they were out of class; Eiyu said he was released early so he could take care of personal matters with Hiyori and Kokoa lied and said she was released early because the sensei got tired of her. Then Eiyu had to explain what happened and how he figured out the Tsuchigumo was the one that attacked Mizore. After that he had to convince the Kitsune that he was going to handle it on his own and for the Safety Committee not to worry about it; the Yuko decided that this would be a test for Eiyu to see if he could handle the pressure of being in the Safety Committee.
"That Baka;" Hiyori snorted "so full of himself. I wouldn't mind taken him down a couple notches."
Hiyori couldn't stand the Kitsune when she first met him when he tried to stop her and Bean from fighting. It was tempting for the Visored to start fighting him so he'd shut the fuck up and leave. But she was enjoying fighting the red head vampire too much at the time. She could see that her counterpart had spent much of her life trying to prove she was strong enough to stop being viewed as a child.
"Not even Onee-sama could beat him on her own" Kokoa said with a slightly angry tone "the teme took hit after hit and laughed like it tickled. Even with him only being seventeen, he has four tails; which is hard to achieve even for Yuko that are twice his age. And he's the only Yuko I've heard of that has a Hybrid form. It took all of Onee-sama's friends to bring him down;" as her fist tightened "and even then, it was barely enough. I still can't believe she fought alongside that Werewolf."
Eiyu stopped walking as his mind started flashing several images at once. The first one was of Kuyo while he was in his Hybrid form; the fox like ears that were visible even underneath his hair, the four tails that had fire surrounding them, and the fox legs that had the same fire around them. The image played, and he saw a werewolf holding the Kitsune in place while the silver haired vampire landed a powerful ax kick to the Kitsune. He noticed something about the werewolf; it was wearing the same red headband and silver choker collar as the person he saw in the memory that was triggered when he meet Nekonome-sensei. The two were probably the same person. The next image was of his being wrestled by the Werewolf when he was in human form. The way it looked, they were pretty good friends but still had issues that weren't easy to fix. The final image was of the Werewolf and the silver haired vampire fighting against each other. It was clear that it wasn't a friendly sparring match too.
"What is it now?" Hiyori spat.
"It's nothing" as he caught back up with the look alike girls "let's find this person and stop him from attacking anyone else."
He closed his eyes and built up his reiatsu a little before letting it explode out of him. Doing this forced his Pesquisa to max out in range and allowed him to pick up even the faintest reiatsu level. He could know where everyone was in a matter of seconds; including the boss of the Tsuchigumo.
Hiyori felt the sudden blast of reiatsu and nearly had the wind knocked out of her. She didn't think that this guy could do something like that.
"What the fuck was that?" Kokoa said as she looked around trying to find the source.
"Sorry" Eiyu said "that was me. I know where we need to go now" as he turned right and kept walking.
The person he was looking for was a pretty good distance away and he had a little difficulty sensing it even with his Pesquisa maxed out. He wasn't sure why he had trouble sensing it, but it could be that the person was good at hiding their reiatsu.
"How did you do that?" the vampire asked.
"I built up my reiatsu and released it" he explained "Grimmjow-sama explained it as a sonar type thing. I think it's a variant of what vampires can do unconsciously. I'm hoping to be able to be as good as a vampire at it" with a smile.
"Reiatsu…?" in a confused tone
Hiyori looked at the chocolate haired boy and couldn't believe he just used shinigami terms to a living person. Clearly he didn't know who to use the vocabulary of the area to keep from blowing his cover.
"What you call Youki here."
-Moka-
The S-ranked vampire walked to her next class as she wondered where her sister disappeared to. Sure it wasn't too weird to see that her short tempered sister had completely left the gym without a word to the sensei, but not saying anything to her; that was the unusual part. Normally the orange haired girl always told her what she was doing; so it worried her that Kokoa just vanished. Then there was the fact that Eiyu took off with that mysterious vampire that just showed up yesterday. From what her sister said, it was the vampire that he was here to get away from. If that were so, then why would he take off with her; things weren't making sense.
"I hate gym" she heard a familiar voice say.
"Same here, it's way too much work;" another said "I just wanna ditch class and go drink some."
"Are you sure you're a succubus?" Kurumu asked.
Moka looked over at her succubus friend and was a little surprised to see someone with an even bigger bust than Kurumu. What made it weirder was the fact that the new succubus had her shirt unbuttoned towards the top. She remembered seeing her with Eiyu the first day he was here and a few times after that, but she never really paid attention to her; her focus was the alleged Fraccion.
"Why would you assume I'm not?" the blonde succubus asked "my boobs are real; thank you very much."
"Yes, they are;" Gin said with a smile as he appeared next to her and grabbed hold "and thank you very much."
"You're so frisky; Ginnei" she giggled as the werewolf fondled her boobs.
Kurumu reacted in her usual way when the Werewolf acted like a pervert; punching him in the face. The werewolf continued to dodge the next barrage of punches directed at him while the new succubus tried to calm the blue haired one down.
"You're Eiyu's friend, right?" Moka asked the blonde succubus.
"Hai. He's such a cutie, isn't he?" with a smile before looking at Gin "but he's not as hot as you" with a wink.
Gin suddenly got a nose bleed as he fell to the ground from vivid thoughts.
"Do you have any idea where he could've gone?"
Rangiku looked at the silver haired vampire with a worried look.
"He disappeared with the vampire he was here to avoid before gym started; not long afterwards, my sister vanished as well."
"I don't know where he could've taken off to;" Rangiku said "what did she look like, the vampire Eiyu's here to get away from?"
"Like Kokoa-chan; only with shorter blonde hair. She was wearing a red track suit and had a sword tied to her back."
Rangiku's eyes widened when she heard this; she knew the description of the person that helped her taichou fight against the Teresa Espada and the person that Moka had just described matched. A Visored was here and looking for Eiyu; that was worrying for her.
'Why would a Visored be here for him?' she asked herself 'and does this mean he has a Hollow too?'
"I'm sure that your sister will be fine" Rangiku said with a smile "Eiyu is stronger than he looks. He'll protect her."
"That's part of what I'm worried about" as she walked off "Kokoa-chan hates being protected by others because it makes her feel weak."
-Eiyu, Hiyori, and Kokoa-
The trio starred at the massive ruins that looked like remnants of an old castle. Kokoa looked back and forth between the castle and Eiyu with a look that showed she was kinda hoping he was kidding about this being where the person was. While she might have been up for going looking for a fight, she was hoping it wouldn't be a place that looked so creepy. The ruined roof that had collapsed on its-self had blown many of the bricks and rocks that made up the supports out and into the open while damaging even more along the way.
"Please tell me this is a joke" the red head said.
"Nope" Hiyori answered "I can feel reiatsu signatures in there, and when someone hides in a place like this; they can't be up to any good."
While the signatures were weak, she could still feel them and tell whomever was in there was trying to mask their presence as much as possible to avoid detection. With what she could tell just from the reiatsu, this shouldn't take long to deal with. This meant she'd be able to beat the crap out of the rising Visored and force him back to Karakura Town for training.
"Maybe we should get Onee-sama for help" as she felt a weird presence and backed up a little.
The presence she was feeling wasn't one she liked; it felt eerie and stalker-ish. It wasn't like the masked creatures she has been killing lately, because she could see them all the time, but this presence, it was something that was alive and unusually strong.
"Fine" Hiyori said while she and Eiyu walked towards the entrance "we'll be done with these guys before ya get back. Or would you prefer to show yer 'Onee-sama' that you can handle yerself with somethin' like this?"
Kokoa stopped mid-step at those words. Her Onee-sama had fought against countless opponents that had every intention of killing them last year, yet she never hesitated to look those enemies in the eyes and say 'bring it'. By doing this she'd finally be able to prove she was strong to her Onee-sama and get the respect she longed for; even though it meant jumping head first into a situation that could get them all killed, it would be worth it in the end.
"Wait up" she said before running to catch up with the Fraccion and 'vampire'.
When they stepped through the rotting wood door, they saw rubble and old glass all over the place. An old stone table was split in half from a roof rafter landing on it, and the doors that were visible were completely rusted over and falling off the hinges.
"Which way is the dungeon?" Hiyori asked as she looked at the various doors for signs of recent use.
"Why the dungeon?" Eiyu asked.
"Baka" Kokoa spat "don't you watch scary movies? When a hideout is a ruined castle, you look for the dungeon first because it's the deepest part of the castle and that means no one will hear a victim screaming. Besides, from what we know about this 'boss' he's one that tries to look cool. This definitely earns him points for that."
Eiyu looked around and started to understand what the red head was talking about. Because the castle was in ruins, no one would dare come here unless they were looking for trouble. And with what she said about the dungeons, it would make since to hide in that part of the castle; it probably was untouched by the damage they were seeing where they were. Plus with how much damage there was they could use the rubble to hide the entrance that leads to the dungeon.
"Hey," Hiyori shouted "found it! Damn thing's blocked by a boulder though."
The look-alike vampires looked at the boulder with slight annoyance; Eiyu only sighed with disappointment. The boulder easily looked large enough to give even Zaraki-taichou trouble; they must have a Yokai that was ridiculously strong on their team to be able to use this to block the entrance.
"You sure this is the way?" Kokoa asked as she looked at her blonde counterpart.
"Look Bean" as she pointed to the ground next to the boulder "it's scrapped up because this thing's been moved a lot. And didn't ya see all the dust everywhere; this boulder is the only thing not covered in it."
Kokoa looked at the ground and saw exactly what Hiyori was talking about. Her new friend knew a lot about things she would've expected her to. She was starting to hope that the blonde vampire would stay so she'd have a friend that wasn't affiliated with her Onee-sama's in any way.
"Ok; now how do we move it?" looking at the boulder again.
"I have an idea" Eiyu said as he held his arm out "but you two need to move."
The two girls moved away from the boulder. Hiyori already had a pretty good idea about what he was going to do; use Kido to blow the boulder to hell.
"Hado Number 31:" as a marble sized red orb grew in his hand "Shakkaho!"
The marble sized orb flew from his hand and towards the boulder. Kokoa fought a laugh that was slowly building in her core as she watched the thing lazily get closer to the oversized rock. When it hit, it sounded like a firecracker went off and caused a good bit of smoke to come from the boulder. As the smoke cleared, they saw only scorch marks where the orb had hit; that did it for Kokoa, she busted into a roaring laughing fit.
"WHAT *haha* WHAT THE HELL *haha* WAS THAT?" as she rolled on the dusty floor holding her gut "was *haha* that supposed *haha* to destroy the *haha* boulder?"
"I guess I still need to use the incantation…" he said sheepishly as he looked at his hand.
All the training he had done with Rangiku wasn't enough to be able to use the Kido spell without the incantation; not that he expected to be able to. Now he knew how close he was to being able to use the spell without it and once they were done here, he could keep training to try to be able to use the spell at full power without using the incantation. He could spend the night training with Soifon to finally get it right; plus he wanted to spend time with her.
"BEAN LOOK OUT!" Hiyori shouted as she felt a new reiatsu right behind them.
Kokoa barely registered the warning before she saw a massive club coming down to crush her skull. The tiny vampire just barely rolled out of the way in time before the club made contact with the ground and left an imprint of where it hit in the ground. She quickly ordered her Bake-Bake Bat to turn into a Morningstar and engaged the attacker in close combat. Her vampiric eyes could make out the outline of the attacker; it was a Minotaur, and a big one. This explained why there was such a large boulder blocking the way to the dungeon.
"Keep workin' on that boulder" Hiyori said to Eiyu "Bean and I will take this guy."
Eiyu nodded before he turned his attention back to the large rock. Right now he probably couldn't fight a Minotaur without shedding his gigai; and that would blow his cover. It was best to let the Visored and vampire handle it at the moment.
"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation," as he held his hand out towards the boulder "flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium," the red orb formed in his hand "the sea barrier surges, march on to the south! Hado Number 31: Shakkaho!"
The large red orb flew from his hand and towards the boulder, when it hit it exploded and sent small rock fragments flying everywhere. Eiyu barely had time to shield himself from the small pieces before they assaulted his body. Hiyori and Kokoa looked back at the boulder and saw a large chunk of if missing, roughly a third, and quickly turned their attention back to the Minotaur they were fighting. The red head blocked the large beast's club with her Morningstar and forced an opening on it for Hiyori to take. As soon as Hiyori sliced through the creature's side, she blocked the club with her zanpakuto and forced it back enough so she could cut into the wielder's arm.
Kokoa let out a battle cry as she swung the Morningstar at the Minotaur's head and sent it flying across the ruined castle. A large smile found its way to her face as she felt proud of launching such a large opponent so far. The hit made the large Ox-humanoid go even farther than she was hoping to send it; all the way to the other side of the room and caused the rock wall to crack around it.
"Don't wait for it to get back up" Hiyori said with an angry tone as she rushed towards the large opponent "keep attackin'!"
Kokoa followed suit and charged the Minotaur before it could get up. The last thing she wanted to do was let the thing get up and build momentum up for a tackle; she might be a vampire, but she doubted that she'd be able to survive something like that. She ordered Kyo to change into a sword as she brought it down on the Minotaur in an attempt to sever a limb, but the beast retaliated by swinging its arm and knocking the two girls away from it like they were only gnats.
Hiyori recovered quickly from the hit thanks to her countless years as a shinigami that built her reflexes and stamina. She saw that her counterpart wasn't so lucky and took longer to get back up from the hit. Their opponent was pretty strong, she'd give it that, but she wouldn't let something like this beat her; not when she was enjoying herself finally. Ever since they had beaten Aizen, the Hollows started to come in fewer and fewer numbers in Karakura Town. That often annoyed her beyond reasoning, and ended with her trying to shut Shinji's record player off because she couldn't stand the music any longer.
She rushed the Minotaur to allow Kokoa time to recover from the hit she had just taken. While she was far stronger than she was letting on, she couldn't use her Hollowfication or Shikai, or any of her shinigami powers for that fact, to just end the fight right then. She was posing as a vampire and couldn't reveal her powers without screwing things up; not that she really cared because she was only there for a short time anyways. With a powerful swing of her zanpakuto, she sliced through the club and smirked as the piece she had just removed from the club fell to the ground beside her.
Another explosion went off and she quickly slide underneath the Minotaur to keep from getting hit by debris. The beast roared in pain as several pieces of hot rock impaled its chest and arms. She saw Kokoa taking advantage of the opening with her Bake-Bake Bat as a sword still and charging towards the Minotaur to deliver a killing blow. Hiyori pushed off the ground and forced herself towards the large opponent with her zanpakuto ready to impale it through the back. As soon as her blade pierced the hide of the Minotaur, so did Kokoa's.
The beast let loose an agonizing roar of pain as it fell to its knees and made final attempts to kill its opponents before it died. However, Kokoa not only stabbed through the Minotaur's chest, but she pinned an arm as well. With only one arm that was extremely injured to use, it couldn't lift its club anymore and was stuck trying to swat the red head away. Kokoa dodged the attempts to swat her easily as she twisted her blade in the Minotaur's chest, causing it even more pain. The duet withdrew their blades and made one last slash at the beast as they let out a battle cry.
Kokoa and Hiyori looked at each other, panting slightly, and started to smile. While it wasn't the biggest opponent either of them had taken down, they enjoyed fighting the Minotaur. It might not have been the strongest opponent Hiyori had ever faced, she could see that it was for her counterpart and decided to let her savor the moment instead of saying that the beast was weak.
"I guess fightin' those masked things really did pay off" Kokoa said as she started laughing.
For the longest time, she had never seen any noticeable results from fighting against the masked creatures that attacked the school. But after taking down a Minotaur that large, she was going to keep doing it. She doubted that she would've been able to fight against it before she started her unique training. And now, she took a B-ranked Minotaur on and only got a bruise on her side from the only attack that she didn't manage to dodge. This gave her bragging rights, and she was going to boast about it to her Onee-sama.
"I've never fought with someone like that" Hiyori said with a snicker "that was more fun than I thought it'd be."
That was the truth. When she fought alongside Toshiro it wasn't exactly easy since the half pint viewed her as an enemy as well and only worked with her since they had a mutual enemy at the time. It was because they kept bickering with each other that they couldn't work together to fight an Espada and it nearly cost them.
"Hado Number 31: Shakkaho!" they heard just before another explosion went off.
"GIVE A LITTLE WARNING NEXT TIME; BAKA!" they both shouted at him as they managed to hit the ground fast enough to keep from getting impaled by rocks.
"Sorry…" Eiyu said sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head "but there isn't going to be a next time. That was the last of it."
They looked back at the boy and saw that he had destroyed the last of the boulder and the entrance was clear for them to push further into the castle. The duet got up and walked over to the entrance, punching Eiyu on either side on their way to the door.
-Yachiru-
The pinkette fuku-taichou was pouting because Chocolate-Hair had just left without taking her with and now had to walk to her classes. She was expecting him to be back before gym got out, but he didn't show up. He was probably off having fun fighting large Hollows without her there to watch and cheer him on. It wasn't fair that he got to leave and she didn't get to go with him! And here she thought that they were getting along so well, but he ditches her and goes who-knows-where with Snaggletooth.
"He's a meanie" she pouted as she jumped up on her chair and pulled out a piece of candy to eat.
-Eiyu, Hiyori, and Kokoa-
The trio cautiously walked down the stone stairs and to the dungeon. The one thing that Kokoa was sure of was that passage ways like this always had a trap of some sort just waiting for someone to trip it. The bruise on her side was starting to hurt like hell and making it hard to walk properly without feeling a sharp pain in her ribs. All she could do was grit her teeth and bare the pain until they got out of the ruins they were in and she could get to the infirmary.
"Almost there" Hiyori said as she saw a light that showed the bottom of the stairwell.
"Something smells like cigarettes" Kokoa said with disgust as she covered her nose.
The three walked out of the stairwell and into the hall to see several prison cells lining the walls. No one was in them; they were just for decoration for now. Hiyori had to give this person props; if it weren't for the fact that she's been to Hueco Mundo she'd say this place gave her the creeps. The burning torches that sat in their holders on the wall dripped the oil from the soaked cloth as it burned and left small pieces of glass in the sand covered floor. Now she could also sense the person they were looking for better. Bean was right by guessing that the person would be hiding in the dungeon; she must watch a lot of scary movies.
Eiyu looked around and saw bones in a few cells that were still chained to the wall. That didn't worry him too much; it was the chance that those souls are still lingering in the castle. While he was still at the Shinigami Academy, he learned that Pluses that didn't move on occasionally bound themselves to a certain place and attacked intruders. As time goes on, that soul slowly turns into a Demi-Hollow which can be even stronger than normal Hollows because of the time they've had to absorb spirit particles from the air and consume reiatsu from living people.
"That you Kumocchi?" they heard a voice ask from down the hall "don't tell me you went out so you could slice up another chick."
The trio ducked into an opened cell and Eiyu kept so he could see the person. He saw the person exhale a long stream of smoke as he got closer. Black shoulder length hair, white shirt with black pinstripes down it that was untucked from his black slacks, and a matching black suit vest. Eiyu didn't recognize him from anywhere in the Academy.
"Hey, Kumocchi; you there?"
Eiyu stepped out of the cell and into view of the person; much to the annoyance of Hiyori and Kokoa. Had he waited for the person to pass, they could've ambushed him and knocked him out without much trouble. Now the guy knew they were there and wouldn't be as easy to knock out.
"Who are you?" the guy asked lazily as he took a puff of his cigarette.
"A friend of Mizore's" he answered as he flared his reiatsu a little.
"Sorry, I don't remember every victim we kill;" while he exhaled "this is just a side gig until we get the heat off us. We were offered a chance to gain a lot of power if we provided intel about this place to that chick; since I'm a Doppelganger," with a smile "I need power" as he threw the butt of his cigarette on the ground and stepped on it.
Kokoa's eyes widened; if this guy was a Doppelganger, then that would explain why he was able to move around the campus so freely without getting spotted. But that also meant that this wasn't going to be easy; if the stories were true, then at least one of them were going to die down here. Dopplegangers take the form of another person, and then kill the person so they can take their place in their daily lives.
Hiyori listened to what the person was saying. Whoever employed this guy was smart; a Doppelganger could easily walk amongst everyone and no one would even realize it. This would allow the best intel possible on the Academy without risking getting exposed because of a personal flaw. The only question was; who was pulling the strings?
Before Eiyu could say anything back, the Doppelganger was already mid-swing through a punch aimed at his face. The speed of this person was unreal; he was barely able to catch the motion before he moved to dodge. He wasn't expecting the Doppelganger to be that fast at all; to be honest, he didn't know what to expect with this Yokai. The encyclopedia he borrowed had very little information on the species; the only confirmed ability that a Doppelganger has is the ability to turn into anyone they touch.
'He's fast' Eiyu thought as he put a little distance between himself and his opponent.
"Allow me to introduce myself" the Doppelganger said "I'm…"
Eiyu disappeared with a static like boom and threw a punch at his head. The Doppelganger easily blocked the attack just before grabbing his wrist and throwing him into a cell door. Eiyu couldn't believe the speed that his opponent countered his attack; it was like he was watching Grimmjow disappear while he was sparring with his Arrancar mentor. Not only could he barely keep up with the speed, but the ease that the Doppelganger countered; it was like he was fighting against Soifon.
"So much for formalities" the Doppelganger sighed as he put one hand to Eiyu's face and his free hand to his.
"NO!" Kokoa shouted while she grabbed Kyo and had him turn into a Morningstar while she tried to stop what was happening.
The Doppelganger was going to copy Kenpachi and his abilities. If that happened, then no one would be able to stop the serial killer from causing even more bodies to pile up. She's seen the way people let their guard down around the Fraccion; it would be difficult to see a betrayal coming. Add that with his strength, if the Doppelganger took over Kenpachi's life, then he'd easily be able to kill anyone; even her Onee-sama. She wouldn't be worried if her Onee-sama didn't let her guard down around the Fraccion so easily and often, but because she has some weird obsession with the Servant to Demons she had to stop the Doppelganger before he copied the Fraccion.
There was a sudden surge of Youki, and Kokoa got blown backwards. The amount that the small vampire felt was the same amount that her Onee-sama has; she never would've thought that the Fraccion was holding back that much on a regular basis. This new fact was going to force her to reevaluate how she viewed the Servant. She has already seen that he is far stronger than he is letting on; the only question was, how much stronger?
"Bean" Hiyori said as she caught her counterpart and slid back a little.
"Huh," they heard Eiyu's voice say "I wouldn't have guessed that you're always in your true form."
The two girls looked at the second Eiyu with wide eyes and slight shock as the new Eiyu rolled his wrists like he was getting accustomed to the new form. Hiyori had never believed the stories of Doppelgangers, but seeing one at that very moment was making her start to believe. Kokoa was stunned with silence as she looked at the second Eiyu; now the Doppelganger had all of the Fraccion's abilities. Hiyori quickly drew her zanpakuto and charged at the Doppelganger. She had every intention of finishing the fight before it started.
As her blade made contact with the Doppelganger, it stopped. The double walker had caught the zanpakuto blade with his bare hand. In that moment, she remembered what Grimmjow had said to Kenpachi before they left; 'It's good to see you have Hierro now'. She remembered how strong the Teresa's was and how hard it was to cut through it, even with help from the shrimp sized taichou. Had it not been for Aizen cutting her down, they might've been killed by the blonde Arrancar. The next thing she knew, she was flying backwards with spit coming from her mouth and an extremely powerful pain in her gut.
The Doppelganger looked at his hand and saw blood ooze out of the cut that he had just received. He half expected the blade to cut the hand completely off, but with the power he felt surge through him when he copied his rude opponent he felt it was worth the risk. The next thing he felt was a fist connecting with his jaw; his original opponent had caught him off guard and got a lucky shot in. The power that was in the hit wasn't enough to break his jaw now that he had copied his opponent's form, but had he been in his original form his jaw would've been shattered. The Doppelganger quickly swatted the fist away from his face and punched Eiyu in the side with the same amount of power he hit Hiyori with.
Eiyu felt a rib crack when the fist connected with his side; luckily he was used to having his ribs crack when he sparred against Grimmjow, so this was nothing. The only problem it presented was that it would hinder his movements throughout the rest of the fight. He threw another punch only to have his opponent wrap his arm around his, lock it, and slam him into a nearby wall.
'I can't even hit him' he thought before he was thrown to the adjacent wall.
When he hit the wall, he felt his shoulder pop back into place. He didn't realize that it was ever dislocated to begin with. He saw Kokoa morph her Bake-Bake Bat into a sword as she went to attack the master of hand-to-hand combat.
'He ain't a fuckin' master of hand-ta-hand combat' he heard Ghoul say 'Soifon could wipe the floor with this loser. Yer just weak.'
He watched as the red-head got thrown down the hall as the Doppelganger used her momentum against her. The small vampire showed she was trying to ignore the pain in her side as she got up and charged at him again. This fight was going nowhere fast and would only end with someone's death at the rate it was going. Kokoa let out a hiss of pain as the double walker elbowed her in her ribs where she was hit by the Minotaur earlier before she was thrown onto Hiyori, who was in the middle of a swing at the Doppelganger.
"I have no choice" as he stood up and reached into his back pocket.
He tapped the Soul Badge against his chest and there was a pop as his spirit body was forced out of the gigai. The feeling made him think he was peeling off a layer of skin from his entire body. That was a feeling he was going to prefer over what was most likely going to happen when he reported back to Soifon, and then submitted his report to Yamamoto-sou-taichou. He had just disobeyed a direct order from the sou-taichou and he knew that wasn't going to play over too well.
Kokoa looked to the source of the pop she had just heard; immediately her body filled with anger. The black kimono, the redwood scabbard and hilt, the way his blood smelled; it was just as she had thought, 'Kenpachi Eiyu' was the guy she had seen on the first day and the one that nearly killed her Onee-sama.
"YOU!" Kokoa shouted with extreme anger and venom.
Tsukune ignored her as he drew his zanpakuto and vanished with sonido. For some reason, he felt faster than when he was in his gigai; he also felt stronger. He could see that the Doppelganger couldn't keep up with his speed so the opponent decided to block, and just in time. Tsukune forced the Doppelganger backwards as he followed through with the attack. It wasn't enough to cut through his own Hierro; that much he could tell from the lack of blood on his zanpakuto. If there would've been blood on it, he would've felt a slight stinging as Bloodriver used the blood to heal his wounds.
"I'm sorry for what happened to your sister" Tsukune said as he looked back to Kokoa "but right now, I need to beat him so we can get out of this alive" just before turning back to face his opponent again.
Hiyori was surprised that it was Bean's 'Onee-sama' that his Hollow had nearly killed. From what her new friend had said about her, the silver haired vampire was the last one she would've suspected as the one that was nearly killed because of his Hollow.
"It seems you can't cut through your own skin" the Doppelganger said as he pulled out a cigarette and lit it.
Tsukune centered his zanpakuto and grabbed it with his second hand.
'If you wish to use our combined strength' he heard Bloodriver tell him 'do not release Shikai.'
'I have to…'
'No, you do not;' cutting him off 'recall the fact that it is the bond between a shinigami and their zanpakuto that forges the ability to grow stronger in zanjutsu. Because you have not learned how to enter your mindscape without me pulling you there, we have not been able to forge this bond. When I was alive I trusted my allies with my life and did not hesitate to assist with a plan that was made at the last second. Do you trust me?'
Tsukune closed his eyes. Bloodriver has never given him a reason not to trust her; she was the one that was helping keep Ghoul suppressed. It was because of his vampire zanpakuto spirit that he was able to stand against Kurotsuchi-taichou and protect Nemu. It was Bloodriver that beat Ghoul back into submission after Murasama pulled her out of him. He would trust her with his life.
'Hai. I won't release Shikai' as he opened his eyes and locked gazes with the Doppelganger.
"You still want to fight even though you can't cut me?" as he met Tsukune's gaze he saw he was serious "fine."
The Doppelganger built up his copied reiatsu and made it visible. Tsukune could see it wasn't the same color as his; while his own was red, the double walker's was more of a faint tint of red on grey. It wasn't as strong as his either; he could feel that it wasn't even a seated shinigami's level. Soifon had told him that his reiatsu was about at a fifth seat's level; he just lacked the skill to be able to become one.
Kokoa could feel the Youki coming from the Doppelganger and it didn't have any effect on her at all. It was barely stronger than her own and she knew why that was; the power was only borrowed. Deep down she wanted the Doppelganger to keep beating the shit out of the one he copied, but she knew that would mean they wouldn't make it out alive. She knew that the person that called himself 'Kenpachi Eiyu' was strong enough to kill the Doppelganger, and once he did she was going to expose him for who he truly is and make his life a living hell.
'When I was alive;' she said 'my title was Nosferatu.'
Tsukune built up his reiatsu and made it visible too. He could feel his reiatsu flowing into his zanpakuto, and Bloodriver's flowing from the blade into him; this was a new thing for him. It was never mentioned what it felt like when the bond between a shinigami and their zanpakuto was being used to its true potential.
Kokoa could feel the pressure in the air build to the point where it was hard for her to remain standing, but she refused to let it show that she couldn't remain standing under such power. She forced her legs to keep from buckling under the pressure and stuck the point of her sword into the ground to use as a brace. The Bake-Bake Bat started to shake in her hands from the amount of controlled Youki there was in the air; Kokoa had a feeling that if this kept up, she would lose her brace.
Hiyori stood just fine even with the reiatsu she was feeling. Since she was probably the one Yamamoto had to flare his reiatsu the most at while she was a fuku-taichou, she was used to standing under far more powerful reiatsu than the rising Visored's. However, she could see that her look alike wasn't doing so well and didn't want to look weak from the pressure that was in the air. She remembered the first time she tried to remain standing under Yamamoto's reiatsu; it took her a week to get out of the Clinic.
"Don't fight it;" she warned the red head "you'll only hurt yerself."
Kokoa let the pressure force her to the ground just before even more was added to the air as 'Kenpachi' started running towards the Doppelganger. When she looked up she saw something form in the red Youki she was seeing around the combatant. It looked about like the head of the creature from the Aliens movie, and the AVP movie. She could even hear a screech that sounded just like the Aliens before she blacked out from the pressure.
Tsukune let out a battle cry as he swung the blade that held Bloodriver at his opponent's chest. He could feel the strength his zanpakuto mentioned that comes from the bond between the two of them. It was about like a fire that coursed through him without causing him any pain, but instead made him more focused on the battle while sharpening his zanpakuto. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before.
Hiyori watched with wide eyes as the soon-to-be Visored's reiatsu showed something's head in it. She had never seen anything like it; it was almost like the Hollow side of him was reaching through and adding reiatsu to him. The force that he hit the Doppelganger with could be seen as the reiatsu left behind a small trail where the zanpakuto sliced into the opponent's skin.
-?-
Several figures watched the Shikigami project the fight on the cave wall. No one liked what they saw; a shinigami. This explained why none of the scouts they sent out ever made it back. A woman crossed her arms under her chest as she observed the fight; she had never seen the shinigami before and yet, with the amount of reiatsu she saw him give off he should be a seated officer. He was a mystery.
"Most unusual" a man said to her "I hope he doesn't interfere with our plans. Of course, Aono Tsukune always did have a way of interfering in our plans rather he realized it or not. If his Ghoul were to consume him, then he would be a very valuable asset to us."
The woman remained silent as she looked at the last image the Shikigami projected. It was of the form within the reiatsu that this Aono gave off. The way the form showed no visible eyes or tongue, but had a small mouth within its actual mouth. She kind of liked the way it looked.
-Moka-
The S-ranked vampire finally had enough of not knowing where her sister disappeared to and cut class to go look for her. The short tempered red head could take care of herself, but with the killings that have been going on, it was concerning for her to think of her sister being out there somewhere and possibly on her own. Even when she would go out looking for the masked creatures to fight them, she knew where she was and often followed her to make sure she would be safe.
A few minutes ago she felt a massive spike in Youki that almost wasn't natural. She didn't know of any Yokai species that could give off that much Youki while condensing it. Although, it did feel familiar to her; she couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she knew it from somewhere. The only person she knew that has levels of Youki even close to what she felt was Eiyu.
"It couldn't be him" Moka said as she continued to run towards the source of the Youki.
-Ruby-
The older witch dropped the crystal ball she was looking into onto the floor and it shattered into countless pieces. She remembered when Yukari told her that she had looked into one to try to find her friends when they went to the Witch's Knoll. The young witch lost a crystal ball that day since a massive crack gouged itself into the ball and made the item useless.
She was originally trying to look and see if she could locate the one responsible for the murders on campus. In the past two weeks twelve had been killed; all with the same M.O.. A bladed weapon was suspect at first, but after the third victim appeared, they narrowed it down to a knife with a single edge; most likely a type of K.A. bar like the American Marines use.
However, she didn't see what she wanted to see. What she saw scarred her; it didn't make any sense either. It was a creature that looked like a creature from space that was in an American movie that Kokoa had showed her. The creature was slaughtering countless Hollows and then devouring their flesh. As the sight continued, it showed the creature changing into a humanoid being that had a fragment of its original head attached to the new human head. The person turned as he drew a black katana and pointed to someone she couldn't see, but she saw the face of the one wielding the katana; it was Tsukune.
She covered her mouth in horror as she tried to keep her body from shaking because of the image she just saw. While the future was never set, it worried her that her most precious person could become something so monstrous. Tsukune was too good of a person to do something so horrible; besides, he wasn't one of those creatures. She knew he was a shinigami, one that cleansed Hollows and ended their eternal suffering while protecting souls of those that hadn't moved on.
A part of her knew she would have to warn the Chairman about the vision she just saw. Regardless of how she might feel about what she saw, this was the Hades Lord's dimension and he needed to know everything that went on; if he didn't already know. The other part of her wanted to completely deny she ever saw such a horrible sight. Tsukune would never become one of those creatures and start devouring them like a starved animal.
"Toujo-san" she heard the Chairman call to her from his office.
Ruby sheepishly looked into the office from behind the door. The Chairman was a man that tended to know things before anyone else; so it wouldn't be too big of a surprise if he already knew about the vision she just had. She remembered when she first met the exorcist, the man already knew how her parents were killed and on what day, he knew how long she had spent at the Witch's Knoll, and he already knew the level of spells she could cast; he was a scary man.
"H-Hai" she said shyly.
"I heard a crash…" as he looked at her while still reading an ancient scroll.
It wasn't easy to miss the sound of something crashing onto the floor and shattering into Kami knows how many pieces. He remembered days when he was first learning the skills of the trade he is now involved in. Fuhai had such a temper back then, but then again, when you go through more crystal balls than an infant witch, such a temper was understandable. He still had scars from picking up all the pieces of crystal he dropped; so it was safe to say that he would never forget the sound of one crashing on the floor.
"Oh… that" she said nervously "I dropped my crystal ball."
"Those don't break unless magic is being put into them; which implies that it was being used" as he turned his attention back to the scroll "I wonder what you could've seen that would make you so careless."
He knew that Ruby wasn't one that scarred easily. After seeing her resolve when Hollows first started showing up in his dimension, he was starting to think it couldn't be shaken at all. Of course, the witch has done much to surprise even him; from being able to cover any position on campus he might need, to discovering the fertilizer formula her former Mistress used to control the Man-Eating Sunflower plants. The spell-mistress was ever full of surprises.
"Umm… well… you see…" trying to think of something to say that could possible detour him from learning about what she really saw.
"I could just be over working you; ever since the Hollows started appearing you have been working even harder than last year in an attempt to keep my campus safe. I believe I should send you on a vacation" as he adjusted the scroll so he could keep reading.
"You… You're going to fire me" with long anime tears flowing down her face.
"Seireitei no, my dear girl;" as he looked at the monitor he hooked up in his office "I would sooner face off against my old friend Yamamoto than fire a dedicated employee such as yourself. And speaking of which, could you have Soifon-sensei, Jagerjaquez-sensei, Matsumoto-san, Kusajishi-san, and Tsukune-kun come to my office? Oh, and please have the little blonde girl in the red track suit come along as well. Lately I have been so caught up with trying to fix the barrier I haven't had a chance to converse with them."
…Shinigami Cup: Golden…
Yokai Encyclopedia: Hosted by Mayuri Kurotsuchi
"Today I will be covering Doppelgangers," Mayuri said as he turned the screen behind him on "their true form is unknown due to the fact that they can copy the way any individual looks and walk around in that disguise for an unknown amount of time;" the screen showed the Doppelganger copying Tsukune's form "in my research I found that while they can copy the physical form of anyone, they cannot copy powers that require practice, skill, or a spiritual source. Such as Aono-teme's sonido, his actual reiatsu, and I believe it would be safe to assume that this is the same for Kido, Shunpo, and a shinigami's zanpakuto."
The screen showed the Doppelganger punching Tsukune, launching Kokoa down the hall, and knocking Hiyori to the ground with ease.
"They are said to be very weak naturally;" he explained "so to compensate for the lack of power, many often learn martial arts and other forms of hand-to-hand combat. This allows them to fight Yokai that would normally overpower them with a fighting style that requires skills rather than brute force" as he rewound the screen to show Tsukune getting punched in the face "I'll never get tired of that" as he did it again, and again.
"Mayuri-sama; do you realize that that is Aono-san punching the Doppelganger?" Nemu asked with a slight blush as she watched it.
"DAMNIT!" as he threw the remote on the ground.
Xxxxxxx
Author's note:
Alright; I'm sure many of you will point out that Murasama made no appearance in any of the previous chapters. This is true, but he is making an appearance in the one-shot I am working on. Like I said before, I will have to put this story on hiatus when I get to a point where I feel the one-shot will be needed in order for a few important things to make sense. I will give the heads up when the hiatus begins and will update this story when it ends after I finish the one-shot.