Chapter 21! The Start of the Shit

Merry Christmas/Start of Hanukah! Early chapter for you!

Warning: language

As Soul hit the ground they knew imminently something was going down. The concentration of the reishi in the air had skyrocketed since breakfast and some of it felt foreign to them, but not completely foreign. There was a hint of familiarity to it, like the kind they had felt lingering around the warehouse that they had found in the mountains. It was a bounts reishi, multiple bounts.

Soul ran, trying to find Atticus but his reishi had completely disappeared. It wasn't like he had moved into the crowd, he was just gone. Soul flash stepped across the garden and into the field. It looked like hell had decided to throw a riot and it had spilled over onto earth.

Everyone was fighting, and they were fighting with each other. "Atticus!" Soul yelled as they ran into the crowd. It felt weird yelling, but it did end up getting someone attention so it kind of payed off.

DB stopped what he was doing and turned to look at the normally quiet Reaper. "Soul?" he asked.

"Dragon! What the hell is going on?! Where is Atticus?" They demanded. To say that the older man was shocked would be an understatement. Soul was yelling at him, Soul was yelling at him. "Answer me you fucker!"

A small smile slipped onto DB's face. "Glad to know you've finally joined us. Atticus hasn't shown up yet but he'll probably be here soon."

"What do you mean he's not here? I followed him out of the garden."

"Well I don't know what to tell you." He shrugged and whipped around to block some guy who had tried to cut his head off. DB pushed him back and landed a solid kick in his abdomen. "I've been watching the castle since the fight started and no vice."

Soul growled and cut down the closest fighting pair. Those two were idiots anyways, fighting without reason or cause, goes against all since of justice and survival smarts any reaper should have. "Who started this then?"

DB shrugged "There were only 10 people out here fighting and I didn't get a good look at who they were. I know Naruto and Laugh tried to break it up but then they got drawn into it. That's when I showed up." He said, taking a sip from his flask while blocking another attack from an unseated officer. "I did nothing."

Soul ignored him and jumped into the crowd. Anger was a real thing for the reaper, they tried to keep it tucked away in little bottles on their shelf, but sometimes the bottles break. It wasn't anger per say, it was something else, a need, a drive, a focal point. This not anger drove Soul and let all the built-up energy inside drive into a single direction. So those who ended up in that path, if they ended up dead or worse, Soul no longer cared.

Their body was almost on auto pilot, moving without so much of a thought or consciousness.

The destruction Soul left in their path drew a lot of attention, enough to get Enzi to turn his head and throw off whoever he was fighting. His pink hair was stained with blood and the hilt of his blade was red as well. He had yet to release his Shikai, but it was ready and even releasing a thin mist had spread around him and across the field, hiding little pot holes that some of the others had created during the battle.

Enzi was distracted long enough for someone to get a jump on him. It was a blue light slammed into his side and forced him to the ground. The things glow made it more visible in the mist as it tried to bury itself inside the ground to get to someone else's feet.

DB imminently recognized the thing from the stupid white coat Bount that he and Tenchi had fought before. "Enzi! Soul!" he yelled, stopping Soul from attacking another group. "They're Bounts!"

Enzi quickly stood up and ran over to DB, grabbing Souls arm on the way. They pushed themselves into a triangle shape and raised their reishi. Suddenly all the mist that wasn't in a three feet diameter around them disappeared, along with most of the soul reapers that were fighting. Leaving only the seated officers standing around, looking confused.

"What the hell?" Soul muttered. They had calmed down slightly with the others around them but still not quite the same as they were before. Soul looked around, trying to find Atticus but he and king seem to be the only one's missing, outside of XV and Jim.

"Soul, I need you to focus." DB said "Look over to your right, what do you see?"

Soul tensed they're muscles and growled, "Lilly." The girl was standing in the middle of the field wearing her pink dress and smiling. There was a little purple ribbon in her hair that was waving in the nonexistent wind. She looked at them and suddenly she was in front of Soul. "Shit!" they yelled, swinging their sword at the girls' face, only to have it go right through her. She smiled again and let her body turn into mist.

"Don't just stand there!" Enzi yelled to the others "There are bounts at the castle!"

The sudden movement of people pushed the trio closer together. Soul continued to scan through the crowd, looking for both Atticus and the bounts. Still no sign of the two. "Enzi, how willing are you to release your Shikai?" DB asked.

"I'd rather wait to see who I'm fighting." He said. DB nodded and suddenly everything was still.

Standing at the top of the hill with the tree on it was a group of five bounts. There was Lilly standing off to the side, Rodrick standing just behind her, Elizabeta standing to her husband's left, and behind them were Gilbert and Ludwig. "Shit." DB said.

Lilly reached up and touched her ribbon and suddenly the group of bounts and the area around them were covered in a think mist. Mist. "Soul," Enzi started "Get Naruto and Amulet and get control of this mist!"

Soul didn't say anything and ran to get the team. They ran just across the field and past the castle entre, grabbing Jim along the way. "What the hell is going on? Where is everyone?" he asked, trying to keep his feet underneath him as he was dragged along the torn-up ground.

"Fucking Bounts."

"Bounts did all this? Soul, everyone in the medical ward has disappeared."

"So has Atticus." Soul said. "And where going to kill the bitch who did it." They grabbed Naruto and Amulet and told them the plan.

"That involves a lot of speculation and risk." Amulet whispered in a concerned voice. "And what do you want Jim to do? He can't control mist."

Soul smiled and leaned forward.

Enzi didn't have time to check what the mist team was doing, he was too busy getting together his team. Sky, Rensa, and Mercury were spread around the field so he had to flash step to get to them. DB's team had come to him so it didn't feel right trying to get his team to come over. Neo's team had already gone off to attack one of the blonds. And he didn't have an eye on any of the others, the mist had begun to spread and mix in with his, limiting his vision.

"Sky," Enzi started "Can you see well enough to fight?"

"Not really, but I can sense their reiatsu well enough to know when to dodge."

"But can you fight?" Sky shrugged. "Good enough." Enzi grabbed his hand and headed into the mist. Over the years, his eyes had gotten use to low visibility fights but it still wasn't very easy. However, it wasn't long before something attacked them.

"Ow!" Mercury yelled. But Enzi wasn't paying attention to him, he was watching the blue light that was trying to hide in the mist. Mercury pushed him aside ran forward and tried to follow the light, the rest of his team ran after him. However, Mercury ran right into Elizabeta. Correction, his neck ran right into Elizabeta's hand.

The Bount smiled "Serpenyő." She muttered as a part of her flower turned to black sludge. The thing slipped down her hair and down her arm, on to the Shinigami's neck. She let the smile drop from her face as she let him fall to the ground. She reached up to touch the remaining flower to make sure the thing was still there before disappearing into the mist.

The thing was suffocating him, spreading around his arms and up his face. Stopping him from moving, breathing. The thing was in his hair and he could tell it was closing around his head. He could feel his heart rate speed up, the idea of being incased in the Doll was not appetizing. First off it was grouse, and second he would die, again.

Mercury struggled to get out of the things grip, trying to knock it off but he soon realized that it was pointless, instead he let the blade fall out of the sheath and he released his Shikai. "Burn to a crisp." He managed to squeak out before he was completely encased.

The Bount was too busy trying to fight off the other three to be bothered by that little annoyance though. She had released half of her remaining Doll and had transformed it into a shape that closely resembled a frying pan. That thing made a very good weapon though. It was a reliable shield though, successfully blocking Rensa's Axe and hitting Sky in the gut in one swift move.

Sky was knocked back but quickly got back up again to punch the girl in the face. Sky wasn't the kind of person who thought you shouldn't hit a girl. To him, if the person deserved to be hit, then it doesn't matter what gender or species they were, they were going to get hit. He went for it but because he couldn't see very well, he failed to notice part of the sludge slip down the woman's arm and move to block his fist.

Rensa pushed himself up and went for the Bounts extended arm. He infused his axe with a compact ball of kido and swung. The kido was a weak level but it managed to burn her arm and forced her to retreat a few feet.

Enzi choose that moment to sneak up behind her and took a swing, metalizing his sword for just a moment to cover it in electricity sparks. There seemed to be some reaction because the Bount eminently pulled away and held her arm. The Doll turned to sludge and slopped to the ground. Sky and Rensa took the change and attacked her.

The sludge that remained with Mercury seamed to weaken with the heat and then suddenly it pushed itself off of him and then reformed into a semi human shape. There was a head, arms, and a torso that doubled as its legs.

Mercury growled, the thing was going to try and fight him. Well might as well give it a fight then. "Ban-kai!"

The sudden surge of heat was felt all throughout the field and even into the castle. "Shit, Mercury!" Sky yelled, but was forced to focus again when the Bount tried to hit him across the face. She had moved the sludge into her left hand and change it into a sword. Still about a quarter of a flower sat innocently in her hair. Rensa and Enzi had disappeared into the mist and Sky figured it was as good as time as any to try and talk the lady down. "Now listen, I don't want to fight you."

"Neither do I." she said, swinging the bland to loosen her wrist.

"Then why are you doing this?"

Elizabeta shrugged "It's not my decision to make." She said before attacking again.

Unfortunately for her, a javelin made of flames came straight towards her head. But, as the team waited for the missing member to appear, no one showed up.