Chapter 14
The caves proved to be labyrinthine. The group came upon a large cavern with many entrances. It was so large that the ceiling and the far side of the open space were lost in darkness. A perfect place for a trap. Everyone but Daisuke sent out balls of kido to try to pierce the blackness.
Cautiously, the shinigami began to cross the wide expanse. When they had begun to approach the middle, the light from the kido balls revealed a lone figure. It was an arrancar. This one was unfamiliar to them unlike Jezebel and her fraccion.
His piercing orange eyes were the first thing that caught an observer's eye. Cruelty and insanity made his gaze glow from within. Apart from that, he was rather mundane looking. From his mousy brown hair to his unremarkable facial features. Even his white uniform was plain. He wore white hakama with a white jacket over top a black under shirt. The blade of his equally forgettable zanpakuto rested on his shoulder.
"Let us pass. You can go back to the hole you crawled out of," snarled Toshiro. Byakuya and Daisuke glanced at the short Captain out of the corner of their eyes. Both were taken back at the vehemence in his voice.
"Why would I do that?" the unnamed arrancar asked.
"It would guarantee that you would live to see another day!" the white haired Captain yelled as he attacked. The orange eyed arrancar grinned, pointing his katana's blade to the ground.
"Deviate, Planaria!"
The forgettable arrancar shimmered, splitting into three. His face was now covered in a plain white mask devoid of all features, no nose, mouth, or ears, except for those eerie eyes. Four worm like appendages grew where his arms were. His height grew making him look like a stick figure.
Toshiro halted his attack when those three figures split until the group of shinigami and Grimmjow were completely surrounded by hundreds of clones. Despite not having mouths, they gibbered ghoulishly. Rin unsheathed her katana.
"Bankai! Futago Akuma Shikaeshi!" Her swords disappeared. In their place was a giant, twin barrelled rocket launcher. It's barrel appeared to be made out of burnt, black wood. Gold flames decorated it. Rin's left arm was now covered in armour, and she wore a translucent gold visor.
"Rin! No! You'll bring the whole cavern done around us!" shouted Daisuke in panic.
His warning came too late. Just as she fired, she was swarmed by clones. Though they perished, they were successful in pointing the muzzle up. The ceiling took the brunt of the blast. The whole place shook as the clones grabbed their victims and held them down, their aim to kill the shinigami and Espada by giving their own lives.
"Dance with the winds, Kaze Tsuiseki!"
A huge blast of air flung most of the clones into the crumbling walls. While Junko kept most of them away, her allies managed to struggle away from their captors. Rin was hacking away at them, her ranged weapon now a two handed great sword with a blade over 3 feet long. The hilt and tsuba were gold and, above the latter on the blade itself, there was a grip that allowed her to grab it and fight in closer quarters like she was now.
Before the room could come down on them, they had no choice but to choose one of the tunnels and escape. While they all escaped, so did the three main forms of the forgettable arrancar, who followed them inside. Debris fell and covered the entrance, forcing them to fight in the dark. The enemies' eerie eyes glowed. The chittering that they emitted sent chills down everyone's spines.
Byakuya was the one who lit a ball of Kido so everyone could see. Rin was busy shoving her way through her allies so she could put herself between them and the nameless arrancar, Junko following close behind. They only stood and watched with an unnatural stillness as the Asaje sisters made their way towards them.
"Get out of my fucking way!" Rin roared. "I'll kill these bastards!"
"I will, too!" Junko declared. Rin glared at her.
"I don't need your fucking help!" she snapped.
"You will if you expect to fight in close quarters with a weapon like that!" the other retorted.
"Let's go. We can't do anything now that they've started into it," Daisuke told the others, shaking his head. He knew full well that, whether they were fighting with or against one another, him and the others would be useless. "We'll just get in the way."
The others left, leaving the siblings and the arrancar. Rin pushed back her sister, trying to block off the fairly narrow corridor. It was a little too wide, though, and Junko was able to duck around her and fling herself at their opponents. The older sibling was quick to follow with an angry snarl.
While two of the three attacked Rin, the third took on Junko. The black haired woman slipped between the first two as they rushed her older sister, stirring up a gust of wind and manipulating it so it slammed her enemy into the rock pile behind it. The corridor shook, and dust and rock rained down upon them.
We need to bring this elsewhere, Mistress, Kaze Tsuiseki whispered in her mind. We need open spaces. Please request of your sister to do so. Preferably using a safe method, if possible for one possessing a destructive nature such as herself.
"'Nee-san! We need more room!" Junko yelled, narrowly dodging a tentacle that looked discerningly sharper than it had a second ago.
"Get down, then!" the angry woman snarled.
Junko hit the ground in time to avoid a blast from her sister's Bankai. The arrancar, unfortunately, took heed of her warning as well. The explosion sent rock everywhere, leaving dozens of cuts both shallow and deep all over her body. Though Kaze Tsuiseki sighed in exasperation, it had done the job without killing either of the sisters.
Now the black haired woman had other problems. Her opponent was right on top of her, literally. Junko started panicking when its tentacles started getting dangerously close to her face, despite her struggles. Suddenly, something smashed into the side of the thing's face, flinging it off of her. Rin didn't say anything as she ran past in pursuit of her own victims, but Junko silently thanked her as she jumped to her feet.
She leapt for the arrancar while it was still trying to prop itself up. When she got close, it turned its face upwards to her. Its eyes remained devoid of all emotion, even as she cut its head neatly in half and sent it flying back. She smirked in triumph, and was about to relieve Rin of one of her opponents, when the arrancar sat up once more.
Horrified, Junko watched the wounds in its head release white goo. The two halves of the head separated, and healed up until they became two. The black haired woman could only watch, dumbfounded, as it stood up, completely unharmed.
Mistress, beware!
The warning snapped her out of her stupor, and she ducked beneath the stretching tentacle sent towards her head. She then spun, using her fans to send her opponent flying, before beginning an incantation.
"Ye lord! Mask of flesh and bone, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Truth and temperance, upon this sinless wall of dreams unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws! Hado #33: Sokatsui!"
Despite her status as but a student, Junko had been practicing the four arts of the shinigami long before entering the academy, much like her sister. The blast was strong and well developed, especially with the addition of an incantation. It left burns all across the nameless arrancar's body. The tentacle arm it had held up to help protect itself had been destroyed completely.
Junko winced, expecting two more to grow or, at the least, for it to regenerate. Nothing happened, however. Even the arrancar cast its arm a confused look. The wound where the arm had been severed had also been cauterized, stopping it from bleeding. She realized the regenerative qualities must be in the blood. If severed appendages were not allowed to bleed, they were rendered useless.
"'Nee-san, use something that burns instead of cuts them, or else they'll regenerate!" Junko yelled at Rin, whose opponents had already regrown several new tentacles.
The angry woman shot her a narrowed eyed look, but not one of annoyance. In fact, Junko could almost swear that she saw pride, but her older sister turned away so fast that she would never be sure. Regardless, she was now taking her advice and switched to her rocket launcher, instead. Hopefully, this would quicken the outcome of the battle.
Now that she was forced to fall back on Kido, Junko was suddenly at a disadvantage. She kept her Shikai released in order to maintain her ability to create wind and keep the arrancar at a distance, but it was tough doing that and fire off Kido spells at the same time. She told herself that this was what she was going to start practicing when she got back to Soul Society. If she wanted to be the well rounded warrior she strived to be, she would need to perfect the mixing of the arts.
With the knowledge that blowing up her opponents was the better option, Rin was quick to finish off her foes, much to her younger sibling's chagrin. This seemed to frighten the arrancar. Not wanting to be brutally murdered like his clones, he turned tail and fled deeper into the caverns. Neither sister was impressed; especially since they weren't particularly fast.
"Bastard! Get back here!" they yelled in unison as they dashed after the thing. It turned a corner, leaving their line of sight as it quickly pulled ahead of them.
They followed, but halted when they realized they were in some sort of room. The arrancar had hit a dead end, and was looking around in a panic. It was filled with cages, each containing some sort of creature. Some unrecognizable, some souls from their very own Rukongai. Seeing them, the arrancar tore open one of the cages and grabbed a young soul, using her as a hostage.
The girl was barely in her teens, but thin from malnutrition. She had reiryoka, that was for sure, but hadn't eaten much in days. She was quite tall despite the lack of nutrients, with chocolate brown skin, big brown eyes, and dark brown hair that was cut as varying lengths. Her clothing was hardly in good shape, much less able to cover her properly.
"Let. Her. Go," Rin snarled. Junko stepped away, knowing that her sister's soft spot for children could very well get her injured or killed in the crossfire of this storm.
The arrancar said nothing, but instead inched away, its razor sharp tentacle dangerously close to cutting the poor girl's throat open. Junko's teeth gritted as her own maternal instincts kicked in. What if that was Ryu?
Rin would have nothing of this hostage situation, though. Without speaking a word, she summoned a Hado spell in between the arrancar's tentacle and the girl's throat, separating them with ease. She appeared in front of her foe, girl in one arm, greatsword in the other as she effortlessly swung upwards and cut it clean in half. She gave Junko a knowing look as she leapt back with the girl, telling her to finish it while it was reforming. Junko held her hands out in front of her.
"Ye lord! Mask of flesh and bone, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Truth and temperance, upon this sinless wall of dreams unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws! Hado #33: Sokatsui!"
They were fortunate that there were no souls within the cages behind the arrancar, for the blast tore through them just as easily. Their opponent was obliterated, the hostage safe. As Junko went around releasing the remaining souls, who ran off with only a quick thanks to offer, Rin comforted her the young girl with a tone so soft that her sister was not sure if it was truly the angry, gruff woman that she was used to.
"You look like hell, Junko," she said, turning to her younger sister with an amused smirk once they had both finished. "Was it a bit much for you?"
The arrancar had gotten her a few times, yes, but she most certainly didn't 'look like hell'. She was worse off than her elder sister, though, who was virtually unscathed from the fight with the much weaker arrancar. Refusing to show weakness, she sealed and sheathed her zanpakuto with motions seemingly unhindered by pain, casting a hard look in Rin's direction.
"Is she okay?" she asked in order to change the subject, nodding towards the girl.
"I'm fine, miss," the girl said, bowing politely. "My name's Miri. Thank you for saving me."
"I'm Asaje Junko and this is my 'Nee-san, Asaje Rin," she introduced them. "And there's no need to thank us, Miri-san." The honorific clearly surprised the younger girl.
"How long have you been here?" Rin demanded.
"I...I don't know," Miri admitted. "Three women came to my house in Rukongai and killed my family. They took me and I've been here ever since. I'm just glad that the creepy pink haired guy didn't take me. No one ever comes back," she whispered.
"Szayel," Rin hissed in a venomous tone. "I'll kill that fuckface the moment I lay eyes on him!"
"If you're looking for the scientist, I know where to go from here," Miri spoke up. Nervous, but not necessarily frightened of the angry woman, much to Junko's bemusement.
"What?" Rin said in surprise.
"But you said you've only gone through the cave system once!" Junko exclaimed. Miri shrunk away, looking even more anxious.
"I-I'm really good at remembering things," she said in a tiny voice. "I remember how to get to the creepy guy's lab from here, I had to go there at first for a...a check up," she told them.
The sisters exchanged bewildered looks, both finding it very hard to believe that she had memorized the route after walking it just once. Yet with their combined sense of direction, they could still get lost in a two room house. Miri was perhaps the best chance they had at finding Szayel before he escaped their grasp. They both nodded.
"Lead the way," Junko said.
"Captain Hitsugaya?" Daisuke asked, puzzled by the short Captain's sudden halt.
The four men hadn't gotten far when they noticed the corridors were being manipulated. Grimmjow had cursed the pink haired scientist's name, mentioning that Szayel was known for such trickery in Las Noches.
"Not now, Esaki," Toshiro said.
The white haired Captain grew very still. Byakuya stood patiently, already knowing what his fellow Captain was attempting to do. Grimmjow leaned against a wall, yawning. Daisuke soon understood what he was doing when red ribbons of energy appeared. Toshiro was using Reiraku to trace Aika. Only high level Captain-class were able to master it.
They were taking longer to appear due to the natural interference that seemed to exist in the Valley of Screams. He cursed the hindrance. Hitsugaya snarled in frustration, trying to keep his focus. He wouldn't be able to track Aika if he didn't calm himself. The first ribbons to appear were those closest to him, Esaki, Kuchiki, and Jeagerjaques. The last showing up as grey. The Asaje sisters appeared next, along with a few white ribbons that represented normal souls and other grey ones for the arrancar. The short man was now finding them easier as he found a way to work around the interference.
"There!" he said, grabbing a red ribbon. Unfortunately, there wasn't a direct route. "Shit."
Toshiro ground his teeth in anger. It was one delay after another. Szayel was two or three steps ahead of them. They needed to best the pink haired scientist at his own game. Hopefully, that was what Urahara was up to. If not, the short Captain was going to beat the shopkeeper within an inch of his life for abandoning them. The man's disappearance wasn't missed by the white haired Captain.
"Kuchiki, care to give us a direct route?" Toshiro asked the noble Captain.
"It would be my pleasure," Byakuya answered. Grimmjow straightened up from leaning against the wall. The chance to witness the 'girly' Captain's power catching his attention. He watched as the Captain drew his zanpakuto, holding it in front of him.
"Scatter, Senbonzakura."
The blade dissolved into what looked like thousands of pink cherry blossom petals. Byakuya directed those tiny blades into the wall easily making a hole. Toshiro took the lead, with Daisuke taking the rear. Just before the dark man stepped inside the hole, however, he stopped. Byakuya cast a questioning look his way, while the others plowed on ahead.
"Go on. I'll catch up," he said. The noble nodded and left.
Daisuke turned and looked down the hallway going the other way. He could sense three reiatsu signatures heading towards them, fast. One of which he recognized. The other two, not so much, but he knew that they were hostile. They would be at his position soon.
"Oh. You again," Jezebel snarled upon appearing with a bang of sonido.
Two other women appeared behind her, one with black hair and the other a blonde. Fighting all three of them at once would pose a problem. He couldn't release Bankai to fight them either, it wasn't quite ready, yet. And now was hardly the right time to test that.
"Get him," Jezebel ordered with a snarl, causing her lackeys to leap forward.
"Hai, Jezebel-sama!" they said in chorus.
As he drew his sword to block one attack, only to quickly duck beneath another, he realized that even fighting these two would be tough. Clearly, they were accustomed to fighting side by side and knew each other's fighting style well. They were able to combine attacks and use other tactics against him.
While he was busy holding back the blonde, the other aimed for his middle with her dagger. He braced himself, expecting to feel the blade puncturing him. Instead, a hand shot out from behind him and grabbed her wrist. On the other side of Daisuke's head came another hand, this one charging a blue cero aimed at all three women.
"Dammit!" the one being held screeched in terror as her allies disappeared.
Unable to dodge, the whole top half of her body was torn away by the blast. The blond cried out her name in shock and horror. Daisuke stayed frozen to the spot, staring at her remains as they fell to the cave floor. Grimmjow stepped up beside him and spat on the remains. He grinned at the taller man, pleased to see how shocked he looked by the carnage the ex-Espada had caused.
"Thought you needed some help. Guess I was right," he purred.
"Jeagerjaques-san... Thanks for the save..." Daisuke said, still a little put off. Grimmjow shrugged.
"I promised Baka-onna that I would play nice."
"Grimmjow..." Jezebel growled from nearby. She was glaring at both of them. "You traitor! Working with the shinigami, how could you sink so low?!"
"Says the one working for Grantz of all people!" Grimmjow snarled. "And at least I'm not some fucking lackey like you are, bitch," he added smugly.
"Lackey?!" she screeched. "You'll regret that!"
"Try me," the ex-Espada purred. "I'll take it easy on you, 'kay? I won't even draw my sword." At this, the woman unsheathed her katana.
"Pounce, Demonio del Gato!" she yelled, releasing her resurreccion.
She lunged at Grimmjow, whose grin widened in anticipation of the fight. It was replaced by an annoyed frown when Daisuke released his zanpakuto and leapt forward to meet the woman ahead of him. Clearly remembering the powers of his poison, Jezebel's charge faltered and she backed away. Daisuke didn't stop pressing the attack, though. He quickly put his opponent on the defensive.
When the woman's lackey drew her sword and stepped forward to join the fight, Grimmjow appeared in front of her. He could steal Jezebel from the shinigami once he was done playing with this one. She wouldn't last long, anyways.
"G-Grimmjow-sama!" she stuttered. Remembering their previous encounter, she dropped her sword and fell to her knees. She placed her hands together as if in prayer. "Please...! Have mercy! Let me leave!"
He started laughing. He grabbed the front of her white uniform and lifted her clear off the ground. He aimed the palm of his hand at her face and began charging a cero. The beam of energy blew off his victim's head and tore a hole in the cave ceiling, causing it to shudder with the strain of sustaining damage. Grimmjow dropped the dead woman and turned to the other two fighting.
Daisuke was neatly dodging the woman's attacks, drawing on experience from their last meeting as well as from his recent training. Grimmjow made a mental note to challenge this man some time, as he seemed to be a worthy opponent. Right now, though, he would step in and end this quickly.
Fortunately the woman was so intent on her opponent that she left herself open to the former Espada. As she was lunging at Daisuke once more, he drew his sword and cut her side open. She turned to snarl at him. Just as the other man moved to take advantage of this, Grimmjow jabbed the weapon forward.
Her attempt to dodge the blue haired arrancar brought her closer to Daisuke. His eyes widened as his dagger sank deep into the woman, deeper than he'd wanted. When Jezebel moved away, they were easily able to force her up against the wall of the cave. It wasn't long before she was breathing heavily and holding the deep wound in her side, and Daisuke knew for sure that his poison had something vital.
Grimmjow was the one to put her out of her misery by shoving the tip of his sword through her forehead. Both he and Daisuke then sheathed their weapons. After sharing a glance, they disappeared to go join Byakuya and Toshiro.