Chapter Seven
"Time to get up, Hime!"
Ryohime groaned and turned over, pulling the covers over her head. "It's Saturday, Dad! I want to sleep!"
An energetic knocking on her door made her huddle even deeper.
"But breakfast is getting cold and you've got patients you have to check on!"
"Patients I spent hours healing when I could have been sleeping," she protested loudly, grabbing her pillow closer. "I'm tired…"
There was no response, so Ryohime took that as permission to go back to sleep and proceeded to do so.
Then she shot into a sitting position, eyes wide, as she felt the unmistakable reiatsu of a Hollow. A pretty strong one. And it was close.
She tumbled out of bed and hastily grabbed the badge from her bedside table. As long as she was in her own home, she preferred to go into soul form without leaving a Gikon in charge of her body. She, understandably, found it creepy.
Soon she was leaping out the window, landing on thin air before dashing off toward the source of the Hollow reiatsu. Her Zanpakuto, comfortably situated across her back, bounced against her with every running stride.
The Hollow was a large one, and exceptionally ugly even for a Hollow. Its large, toothy mask was the only solid-color part of it, the rest being a dappled brown with mixes of green and red. It had a large fin-like ridge on its back, as well, which made Ryohime wonder if it was supposed to resemble some kind of disgusting deep sea fish-creature. Whatever it was, she knew she would enjoy making it disappear.
It had a young spirit boy in one tentacle-like claw, and was chasing after another, this one female. Ryohime drew her Zanpakuto and dropped down toward the vile creature, aiming for its mask. The Hollow seemed to notice her attack, however, and reared back just in time to avoid the blow. Ryohime adjusted her own fall and instead brought her sword crashing down on the arm grabbing the boy, severing it completely. The Hollow roared and lashed out at her, enraged by her interference.
Ryohime jumped out of the way of the attack, then retaliated with a deep slash to its other tentacle arm. The blow didn't go all the way through, though, and the Hollow jerked away, its unusually tough skin catching and yanking her Zanpakuto from her grasp. She yelped and dove after it, only to be smacked away by a second pair of arms. She tumbled through the air and crashed into the side of a building across the street, knocking the breath out of her.
The Hollow screamed and wrapped a tentacle around the Zanpakuto, still embedded in its flesh. Ryohime realized what it was planning and rushed to try and stop it, but she was too dizzy from being slammed into a building. With another roar, the Hollow yanked the sword from its tentacle and threw it viciously away from them both. Ryohime's heart jumped as she lost sight of her Zanpakuto as it flew over the nearby buildings, and desperately she tried to run after it.
The Hollow wasn't about to let her get away so easily, though, an unarmed Shinigami would make a nice little treat. It snaked a long tentacle after her and curled around her leg, yanking her out of the air. She shuddered at the feeling of the damp limb and slammed her other heel into it, hoping to make it let go of her, or at least loosen its grasp. She accomplished neither.
That's what I get for trying to take on a strong Hollow while I'm half asleep, she thought grumpily to herself as the Hollow began drawing her towards it, a satisfied snarl of anticipation making its already hideous face even more hideous.
.
James woke up early with a most unusual feeling. He got up, got dressed, started making himself breakfast… and then realized what it was that felt so off. There were no spirits sobbing to themselves in the corner.
He frowned and sat down to enjoy his rice and eggs, wondering to himself where the annoying things had gotten to. He spent a quiet hour after breakfast reading before the silence began getting on his nerves, then he put on his shoes and headed out for a walk.
It was a nice day, at least. The sky was bright blue, with little wispy clouds that were so insubstantial they hardly cast shadows. The sun was still climbing from the horizon and, though dawn had long since passed, buildings often obscured it from view. James liked the shade the buildings cast, there was something quiet and peaceful about it.
It was a beautiful example of a morning in late June, and James realized he hadn't been out to enjoy such a morning for a while. It was a nice break from the darkness of his basement, even more so without the constant presence of those depressed souls hanging around him.
Which got him back wondering what had happened to them. As annoying as they were, as much as he had tried to ignore their existence, it felt wrong that they should just disappear. Had something happened to destroy them? Or maybe they had just all moved on to someone else. That was a possibility.
For half an hour he walked quietly along, thoughts flicking from one thing to another in a chain anyone who didn't thoroughly understand him would have found very confusing. He wondered for a moment if Steve would want to do something later, then set the notion aside for until it was actually later.
A moment later, he realized that he was tensing. He frowned, purposefully trying to relax, but it was like someone was making a very high-pitched noise, something he didn't recognize was putting him on edge. He stuck his hands in his pockets and looked around suspiciously, but didn't see anything that unusual. The street was empty, and there was only one person nearby, a boy sleeping under a tree in the park.
James glanced back at said boy, suddenly suspicious. It was the same boy from the other evening… the one that had somehow turned into two people and killed that monster with an antique sword. And had shot lightning out of his finger.
Now, that was odd.
Why do I keep running into these things? James asked himself, turning away. Spirits, monsters with white masks, monster fighters with orange hair, monster fighters with black kimonos…
Something suddenly smashed into the ground behind him, and James nearly fell trying to turn too quickly. Between him and the park, there was now a katana with a purple hilt, sticking out of the pavement and quivering from the sudden impact. James blinked. How… unexpected.
He heard the footsteps and looked up, just in time to see the light-haired teenager that had been resting in the park running towards him. James hastily ducked aside, and the other ran past, snatching the katana out of the ground as he passed.
"Sumimasen!" he called back at James. James wasn't sure what he was apologizing for, but as the young man was no longer in a range James felt comfortable replying in anyway, he decided not to let it bother him.
He turned to continue his walk… then stopped. He looked back in the direction the other young man had run, the direction from which the uncomfortable feeling originated. For a moment he stood undecided, torn between ignoring this strange side of the world he had been coming to see, and trying to understand it.
A moment later he began walking. Following the source of the disquiet in his soul.
.
Yoshirou didn't mean to get involved, he really hadn't, but it was impossible for him to sit back while someone was being losing to a Hollow. He had thought whoever the other Shinigami was, she would be able to handle herself against a Hollow of this strength, but when he had felt that sudden decrease in the Shinigami's reiatsu, when the Zanpakuto had fallen from the sky, he had instantly realized he needed to help.
This was an emergency, Yoshirou knew his teacher would agree.
Kitsune ran below him, but was quickly falling behind due to Yoshirou's superior speed as a Shinigami. Yoshirou glanced down at him, then ahead, then down again.
"I am going on ahead, I'll meet you there!" he called down, and the Gikon smiled widely at him.
"If you say so, Chibi-sama. Best be quick, though. If you take too long, I might have to help you, again."
Why couldn't you have given my a nice, relatively normal Gikon like… Chappy? This thing has way too much personality…
Yoshirou's mental complaining to his far-distant master was cut short as he saw the battle up ahead, if it could be called that. He reached back and grasped the hilt of his Zanpakuto, wishing desperately he had flash step. The Hollow had a girl, mid-teens probably, grasped in one of its long tentacles, and Yoshirou could hear her faint screaming as it slowly crushed the life from her.
"Ye lord! Mask of flesh and bone…" he chanted quickly, holding out his hand so the palm was aimed at the Hollow's head. "…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.
"Hadō no sanju-san, Sōkatsui!"
The Hollow bellowed in pain as a blast of blue fire slammed into the side of its head, almost knocking it off its feet. Yoshirou stumbled slightly, the mid-level kido spell was far higher then he had mastered yet, and was more draining on him that it would be on a real Shinigami. But his purpose in launching the risky attack was to distract the Hollow from its intended victim, and in that he succeeded.
By now he was close enough to draw his Zanpakuto, which he did, dodging the first attack the Hollow tried and slashing across its nearest tentacle. This enraged the beast and it lunged at him, intending to crush him.
Yoshirou met it head on, wielding in one hand his Zanpakuto, in the other the Zanpakuto of the other Shinigami daiko. He wasn't trained in duel-wielding, but against such a mindless brute you needed little. He jumped up through the incoming wave of tentacles and slashed with both swords, slicing and severing anything that got too close. Then he was level with the Hollow's face, and he abandoned the second sword so as to grip his own with both hands.
The Hollow tried to avoid the blow, but Yoshirou was too close. With one powerful downward swing he cut through the Hollow's mask completely, and with the usual, last disbelieving roar, the Hollow disintegrated into black particles that faded into the wind.
Yoshirou moved to catch the girl, but she landed neatly on the ground before he came close. She ran over to her dropped Zanpakuto and picked it up, brushing off the dust before sheathing it. Then she turned to examine Yoshirou.
"Hi," he said, somewhat nervously, as he lowered himself to the ground again.
"Yo," she replied, tilting her head slightly in his direction. "Who are you?"
Yoshirou sheathed his Zanpakuto and bowed to her formally. "Ruhiyo Yoshirou," he said, "Shinigami daiko."
The girl's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh, there are more daikos running around? I thought it was just me and…" she cut herself off, shaking her head. "Where are my manners? I am Kurosaki Ryohime, also a Shinigami daiko. Thanks for stepping in like that."
Now it was Yoshirou's turn to look disbelieving. "K-Kurosaki?" he stuttered. "As in… related to Kurosaki Ichigo?"
Ryohime frowned slightly. "Yeah… that's my father."
Yoshirou's eyes widened significantly. "You are… Ichigo's daughter?" For a moment he stood there, stunned, then dropped to his knees and bowed. "I-it's an honor to meet you!"
Ryohime looked at him like he had lost his mind. "Stop that!" she said uncomfortably. "Why are you bowing? Get up!"
Yoshirou looked up at her, absolute awe shining in his eyes. "But you're his daughter! The daughter of the most famous human known in Seireitei, the hero that defeated…"
He stopped suddenly, as if struck with a sudden realization. Ryohime had averted her gaze, head bowed slightly, and he rocked back on his heels.
"I'm sorry, I was being insensitive," he said, bowing again. "Gomen'nasai."
"That's all ancient history," she said, a tone of bitterness in her voice.
"I know," he replied, rising back to his feet. "May I try again?" He held out a hand, smiling hopefully at her. "It's very nice to meet you, Ryohime-san."
Ryohime looked at him for a moment, then cracked a slight smile and took his hand.
"Nice to meet you too."
{Author's Note}
In the next update, I am introducing a third kind of chapter: "After Interludes". After Interludes are, obviously, after the interlude each week, in the same update but with very different content. They are inversely italicized, with normal text indicating thoughts or inner-world content, italicized being actions and speech. While they may start out being confusing, the content should be significantly explained later on.