Well, I'm back again. I've been busy, high school graduation, parties, birthday, whatnot. Not a good combo. Ugh. But for all of you who have wanted to see a new chapter in so long, here it is!
Enjoy the chapter.
"...That he is..."
Shin immediately tensed as the man unsheathed his blade.
"You're... you're related to me?" the cyborg's voice echoed through the speakers within his helmet. He wasn't about to place his trust in a supposed relative that he just met now. Anything could happen... and the sharp sword in the man's hand didn't look to friendly either.
"I am," the other Kurosaki answered. "We're here to evaluate your status as a potential threat to Soul Society and The Balance."
"Wha-"
"Commence!"
Instantly, the Shinigami were on him like a pack of dogs on meat. He was forced to use his EP Boosters to fly into the air... only to discover that they could "float" in the air. That surprised him.
"Crap."
"Not crap, boy..." Kenpachi shouted, "It's supposed to be 'yes!' for the love of battle! Hahahah!"
Kira frowned at that, he veered left, nearly running into three more death gods. It was the shorty and the busty strawberry-blond.
"Tch!" He sheathed his Seele Schneiders and used his hands to shoot. "EP Hailstorm!" Thousands of little bursts of energy soared through the air at the two.
"Growl! Haineko!" Rangiku Matsumoto released her shikai, unleashing the dusty ash that would transform all it touched into the same substance, only furthering its coverage.
"Sit upon the Frozen Heavens, Hyourinmaru!" An watery, icey, chinese dragon appeared as Toshiro Hitsugaya cried out the chant.
Shin almost froze in shock as the the swords changed shape into something ethereal and mysterious. He forced himself to regain control of his shaking limbs and zipped through the air and into safety... or so he thought. The dragon and ash chased him, causing him to continuously fly and evade the oncoming attacks. Then he ran into Shunsui Kyoraku. He drew forth the EP blades from his fingertips and brought them down on the captain.
"Hmm... You are far too tense, young one." He chuckled. "Your dance is far too tense... Flower wind rage and flower god roar, heavenly wind rage and heavenly demon sneer! Katen Kyokotsu!" With that, two chinese broadswords were brought into existence, forcing back Shin's own energy blades from his hands came back at him. He struggled to keep the upperhand.
Suddenly, he saw a blur of white and black as two jabs were made at his suit, lowering his shields to 83.86 percent.
"What the fuck..." He let go on his clash with Captain Kyoraku and flew away, but was caught in a torrent of stabs that kept lowering his shields. It took only a moment for his eyesight to adjust. He caught the blade in his hands with the last flash.
"So you've seen through my Shunpo..." Kuchiki Byakuya's face tightened. "Impressive... but I'm still not going to use my Shikai on someone like you."
Wordlessly shirking aside the disrespect with a soldier's attitude, Kira quickly pulled up his HUD's analysis report. According to his Kenseigan, the Shinigami were able to float in the air and zip around wherever they wanted to by creating a path of soul energy from there feet to their destination. Simply put, they use a lot less energy by using minimal power with this method then constantly bursting EP through his jets. He decided to try and copy it.
He flashed through the air, catching the other death gods off guard. Shin came to a halt, and checked his feet as he even surprised himself. The ABS unit was surely standing on thin air.
"That's useful..." He turned and looked at the Shinigami from a distance. His eyes caught their shocked faces. "Play time's over. Cero!"
The enemies scattered from the unexpected attack. They regrouped and then a giant cleaver sword was in his face. He used his new found technique to dodge the swipe.
His kin attacked.
"You! Who are you!?" He raised his hands and fired the EP Rapid Shot and another Cero.
"I'm Kurosaki Ichigo! Captain of the Zero Division! Defend yourself!"
"Argh!" Shin pointed both hands at the oncoming attacker and fired two Ceros at once at a steady rate.
"Bankai!" Ichigo shouted. Kira gasped as a sudden rush of reiatsu came onto his senses. He wasn't given enough time to respond, and was hit by a blast of energy from above, causing him to hurl toward the sands below.
An exploding thud made the sand fly into the air and a crater was made where ABS 131 lay.
"S-shit..." He stood up and used Shunpo to fly back into the skies. The biologically enhanced soldier couldn't really catch a glimpse of the orange haired Shinigami.
From behind! A voice within his head shouted. He immediately heeded the warning and used the flash step to get away.
From above! He avoided that attack as well.
Heheheheheh... now do as I say...
Kira mentally nodded in acceptance. He received new orders from the dark voice within his mind. It was an instruction on how to use a faster Cero variant.
"Bala!" he roared. However, instead of punching like he was told, he kept his arms extended and shot the bullets of soul power like his other attacks.
Ichigo, who was used to seeing former Espada from his past times punching the Bala was once again caught off guard by his descendant's tactics.
"Your improvisation is good! But still not enough to get me!"
Shin's eyes widened as the man before him increased his speed and appeared right in his face. Kira himself jumped back using the Flash Step and tried to escape, but Ichigo continued to press him into a "corner". In his frustration, he drew two EP Soul Cutters and tried to counterattack. Of course, the other was much more experienced in swordplay and pushed the supersoldier back.
"Why!? Why are you attacking me!?" Shin screamed. His eyebrows furrowed as the other refused to respond. In his anger, he threw his two blades at his ancestor.
"I already stated my reason. Simply to see if you are for or against our cause." Ichigo's eyes stared coldly at the soldier.
"What cause!? How does this accomplish anything?" Shin drew another two blades from his triceps and threw them to further delay the oncoming Shinigami's attack.
Ichigo gazed at the young soldier.
Beneath all that dense armor, the wizened and aged death god saw the insecure and weak boy within. Behind the orange-haired one's stoic expression, he was screaming at himself to stop. However, that was not an option. By the order of Soul Society's council, the ABS units were all designated as variable weapons... meaning that they were unsure if the existence of such a being would be dangerous to the Shinigami or the Balance they all fought for.
The Balance.
It was a funny thing. They were testing Shin for the same reason as having exterminated the Quincy.
At first glance, from a human's perspective, it was a good thing that soldiers like Shin were able to fight back at monsters that were unseen to the normal man. But to the Shinigami, this was a terrible sin. Why? The Advanced Bio-Engineered Soldiers used reiatsu, soul energy, as their main power source. Like the Quincys, their attacks would be direct energy to body contact, which would instantly disintegrate the soul matter... and of course, everyone new what would happen if that continued.
However, there was one major difference. The ABS utilized human technology, effectively converting Spiritual Energy into Physical Energy. But many of the core properties of the former remained. But how could the Gotei Thirteen know for sure if this wouldn't affect the precious balance that kept everything in place?
...Which was why Ichigo and seniors arrived in the human world to 'test' the young super soldier leader.
But to attack the one with whom he had made so many attempts to save and keep safe, it was much too hard.
"Rggh..." Shin was making every effort to avoid being cleaved in half. Whatever it was, this so-called Zero Division Captain was seriously about to slice his ass to kingdom come. He'd have to do something fast.
Kira was about to activate the emergency energy reserves, but the voice in his head told him to halt his actions and do the unthinkable.
"What!?" he voiced his shock.
Do it! The eerie voice cried.
Why!? Shin detested the voice's choice.
To live!
That did it. Shin, despite how crazy the command was, he would have to follow the voice out of self preservation. Besides, the voice had never failed him in the tightest of situations.
He immediately halted in the middle of the captains and let them come.
Then he pulled out the remaining two Soul Cutters in his arsenal and stabbed himself.
"Wha-!" Ichigo could only look upon his great descendant in disbelief. Shin had just taken his two Seele Schneiders and stabbed himself in his Soul Spirit and Soul Chain. That would mean instant fatality.
However, that wasn't the end of it. The blades grew brighter and the light emitted from them more intense...
… then they blew up.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" Shin was on the ground, clawing at the air in pain. "AAAH! AAAAHHHHHH!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"
It was the most intense feeling that he had ever felt in his entire life. It was as if someone had taken two torches of eternal flame and just stuck them inside his torso.
His head began to twitch. Unfortunately for him, his Q-Gen wouldn't allow him to fall unconscious, and the blast was so damaging that his pain receptors remained on.
Then he felt his vision fade and fall into void.
"W-what just happened?" Matsumoto asked in dumb confusion.
"I-I don't know..." Hitsugaya whispered. "He just..."
All the captains could only stare with a dumb look on their faces.
What did happen? Why did it happen? As far as they knew, no sane person would willingly stab themselves so fatally, whether they knew where they were stabbing or not. They all wanted to know.
"W-where am I?" Shin opened his 'eyes'.
He looked around. To his surprise, there were blocks made of virtual digits, letters, and characters. All around, he saw these blocks and cubes making up buildings and spheres and shapes. It was everywhere. Even in the designated 'sky' he saw a virtualized sun and moon. It was an odd experience. It was as if the world he knew on the outside was all in computer data form where he figured was his mind. So the question was, "is this my mind?"
"Yes," another voice from 'everywhere' answered his question.
"My mind?" he paused. "Who are you?" He looked around to see if there was another who would make an appearance.
"I am you, you are me. We are the same. Heh." It was the voice that had talked to him all along.
"... am I dead?"
"No. Far from it. Your life is only beginning."
"You-" Shin stopped. "Are you... Kira?"
"Yes."
Now Shin had to stop and ponder about that. All this time, he had taken up the name 'Kira' as his own. However, since the beginning he was aware of two existences merging to become one. But since the time of his activation, or Kira's rather, he hadn't questioned it.
"So who... are you in control right now?"
"If you look at it that way... I am in control of your body as long as you reside in here. But I cannot do anything... your body is far too damaged to do anything."
"Why!? Why did you have me do that?" Shin's eyes furrowed.
"Because you needed to survive. Haha... This is the only way. In exactly 3.2 seconds, this place will corrode and fall apart. Then in a total of twenty real-world seconds it will all fall into the abyss and us with it."
"Wha-"
"Calm down. Heh." Kira spoke to him. "The time in the real world is like a minute in here as of now. Now, come find me."
"Tch." Shin now knew he had no choice but to comply. He quickly ran around trying to find 'Kira'.
He ran around frantically, but there simply was no hope. The inner world was too big, definitely proportional to the world outside. He ran and ran, but was getting no where. How would he find the artificial intelligence at this rate? All was doomed... unless...
"Hmm..." Shin reached to a wall of data. He touched it with his hand, and closed his eyes, concentrating to find his other self.
If what Kira said was true, then Kira was Shin, and he was Kira.
"Found you."
The captains stared at the ground below and the body that lay upon it. Some solemnly gave a slight prayer, thinking that Shin had committed suicide in a desperate act of self-termination.
"Hmm?" Shunsui raised an eyebrow from under his hat, looking at the corpse once again. "Eh!"
He and the others flash-stepped away in time before a beam of light consumed them.
In the middle of the desert, a white knight was surrounded by white light.
A warrior dressed in his white garbs and blue body armor, armed with blades of pure energy.
Shin and Kira, the superhuman who had become a Shinigami.
A/N – Dude, I pulled an all-nighter for this one and even drew a sketch of what I think Shin's new Shinigami armor may look like (not official). I will post the link on my profile page soon.
How was that after a year of absence?