Blackened earth is all that remains of the hideout. Hanatarou kneels close by; hands already bound in sekiseki stone – his large puppy dog eyes wet with tears. He is overshadowed by a gigantic hollow that is easily as large as an apartment block, and just as wide. Yoruichi cannot help but marvel at his size.
The fugitive shinigami holds tightly onto the feverish bundle in her arms. She has just arrived on the scene, courtesy of shunpo and now wishes she had approached the location with the usual caution. She thought only of returning Hitsugaya, as swiftly as possible, to the care of the healer. She berates her own carelessness and inattention (how could she have missed that gigantic form?) before transferring Hitsugaya to her left arm, to free her sword arm. She then draws her short sword. The young captain does not stir as he is repositioned, and nor does he respond when Yoruichi's body tenses for battle.
Hanatarou does not appear to be in any immediate danger, so Yoruichi decides to meet the threat head on. She will rescue the healer later.
Words are exchanged. She boasts and insults in equal measure, but no sooner have the words left her lips when they are forgotten. The dialogue is merely a means by which to buy time. Yoruichi's real focus is in assessing the threat the mountainous hollow poses. Sharp yellow eyes try to detect any immediately noticeable weaknesses.
However, there is little time for appraisal; as a splash of purple enters her periphery, informing her of another presence. Yoruichi quickly spins on her heel, confident for the moment that she can turn her back on her opponent, to see who it is.
This is a mistake. Instinct is the only thing to save her as she jumps to the side to avoid a fist slamming down upon the space she had previously occupied. Yoruichi spares no more time for the other presence. She already has a clear idea of who it might be, given the unmistakable spiritual signature that is only now beginning to register. Has he just arrived? Or has he been here all along? Yoruichi suspects the latter, reasoning that some kind of shielding apparatus must have been in play to cloak the man's reiatsu; otherwise she would have detected him earlier. It also might go some way into explaining her own lapse. For, even in a hurry, how could she have missed such a massive blot on such a levelled landscape?
The sun is shining, but the rays of warmth do not reach her, shadowed as she is by the giant figure of Yammi, who is quickly turning the surrounding ruins into their primary elements. Dust hangs heavy in the air, a choking cloud of debris stirred up by the powerful hollow, and Yoruichi's own flash steps. She takes the time needed to properly confirm the bastard's identity during a particularly dangerous pirouette on a lone streetlamp. Mayuri Kurotsuchi.
Burdened by Hitsugaya, Yoruichi is on the defensive, as she twists and turns to avoid Yammi's heavy handed attacks. She fires off a few Kidō spells to no affect, left palm occasionally facing outwards in a delicate balance of holding Hitsugaya securely and attacking. The temptation to flee is strong, but she guesses by the faint shimmer in the air, detectable even through the dust cloud, that a barrier has already been erected to prevent escape.
Yammi poses a big concern and yet her main worry is the turncoat scientist standing a few feet away, who is inexplicably doing nothing to aid the Hollow. This is disquieting. Suspicious, Yoruichi tries to keep her attention halved on both threats. It is an impossible task, with the earth also conspiring against her, as Yammi rips it up with his bare hands and flings great slabs of concrete into the air.
The dust cloud is not all it appears. Yoruichi realises this too late as reflexes suddenly fail and she stumbles, surprised. Her hands become nerveless, and she can only watch, powerless, as her charge slips from her arm. Her sword also slips from her grasp, but this is less important. The transition from complete control to nerve failure is almost instantaneous. She is thankful then that she is on the ground, for surely if she were up high, as she were only a few seconds ago, the impact to the young boy's body would be all the greater. As it is, he has likely only sustained cuts and bruises.
Yoruichi tries to check on Hitsugaya, but discovers she cannot, because her neck has already locked and is incapable of movement. The rest of her body is also similarly disabled and falls to the ground a heartbeat later. Her eyelids have frozen whilst shut and so she is blind to her fate, and that of her comrades.
For all her swiftness, for all her mastery and enhancement of shunpo into greater and more sophisticated forms. For all this, she is helpless in the face of the paralyzing agent, cleverly dispersed within the dust. She briefly wonders how the bastard managed to conceal Ashisogi Jizō.
There is little time for curiosity, however, before one clenched palm smashes into Yoruichi's prone form. The force of the blow violently acquaints her body with concrete. Death is just as sudden as the paralysis in its takeover of her body.