Hinamori's Apprentice
Chapter 25
Ichigo used bursts of shunpo to travel through Rukongai. In his desperation to find Karin, he was able to travel fast, searching entire districts in a matter of minutes. He looked for any sign of Karin, along with Momo or Toushiro. He was unable to feel even a trace of their reiatsu however, and he was overcome with worry.
Suddenly, in mid-shunpo, he stopped. He immediately tried to use shunpo again, but it didn't work. He looked around in confusion. This had never happened before. The field he was in did not appear unusual, he was simply unable to use shunpo any more.
"Yay! It worked! It worked!" a cheerful voice said behind him.
Ichigo spun around to see a female Shinigami with dark hair tied up with a ribbon behind him.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" he asked, placing a hand on his zanpakuto, unsure who this person was.
"Oh, hey Ichigo!" the girl said brightly, "How are you doing? It's nice to see you again!"
"What are you talking about and how do you know my name?" Ichigo said.
"Oh right, you don't remember…" the girl said, "Tell you what, after we're done, I'll tell you."
"Done with wha- Hey!" Ichigo was barely able to draw his sword in time before the girl attacked with her own zanpakuto.
"Ooh, nice reflexes Ichigo!" she said.
"What the hell are you doing? Tell me who you are and what the hell you're up to!" Ichigo growled.
"Don't you remember your old pall Senna?" the girl asked with a pout, "Oh well, I guess that can't be helped."
"I don't have time to deal with you," Ichigo muttered, "Bankai!"
Reiatsu swirled around Ichigo, concentrating around him as he began to go into bankai. Just as he did however, a strange feeling came over him, and his bankai disappeared as soon as it had appeared.
"What the…"
"Hooray! That worked too!" Senna said brightly, "Usagi's work is amazing!"
"Move out of my way," Ichigo ordered sternly, ignoring her cheerful demeanor, "I have important business to take care of and I don't have the time to deal with you."
"Awwwww, that's too bad Ichigo, I was hoping we could catch up on old times!" Senna said, "I guess I'll just have to fight you without a nice conversation." Ichigo glared at her.
"If you let me leave now, I'll be willing to spare your life," he said, "I have something urgent to attend to. If you fight me now, I will not show you mercy."
"This, 'urgent thing' is finding your sister, right?" Senna said, "Would you like me to tell you where she is?"
Ichigo did not answer verbally, instead lunging at her with his sword.
"That's the spirit!" she said cheerfully.
"Tell me where Karin is!" Ichigo yelled.
"Only if you beat me!" Senna said playfully. Ichigo growled. It seemed that he had no choice but to fight this girl. He could only hope that Karin would be okay until he found her…
---
Karin let out a startled cry as Aardo's sword clipped her cheek. He cackled as she attempted to steady herself in a defensive stance.
"You'll never beat me like this! Not that you could anyways, but especially not like this! You're just a shrimpy little brat!" he laughed.
Karin jumped back as Aardo slashed at her ankles. He was playing around with her. He knew as well as she did that her situation was hopeless, and was taking his time to play with her before killing her. Karin tried to think of something, anything, that she could do to turn the battle in her favor, but nothing she thought of would work. Despite all of her training with Momo, she had nothing with which she could defeat this arrancar. The difference in strength and skill between them was simply too great.
"You're gonna get cut up even more if you just stand there!" Aardo yelled, slashing at her and inflicting a deep cut on her shoulder. Karin instinctively clutched her shoulder, but this only gave the arrancar an opportunity for another strike. He brought down his sword in a wide arc, cutting through her brown robes and into her side. Karin tried to counterattack, but he easily blocked her strike and kicked her in the chest, sending her staggering back.
Struggling to catch her breath, she watched as he laughed at her. This was it, she was really going to die. She'd never see Ichigo again. She's never see Rangiku again. She'd never see Momo or Toushiro again. She'd never be able to laugh or eat or play soccer again. Just as her life as a human had ended, now her time as a soul was ending. She would never live to become a Shinigami or earn her brother's acknowledgement. Everything would end for her in the field where she stood. She had tried everything, but nothing worked. It was hopeless.
"It's not hopeless," Denryu's voice echoed in her head.
Yes it is, Karin thought, There's nothing left for me to do. I'm certain to die. There's nothing I can possibly do to save myself.
"You're so quick to declare your situation hopeless, yet you have not even attempted to use my power."
But I can't use your power! I don't know how, and using your shikai form will just put me at a worse disadvantage! Karin argued.
"If you're 'certain to die' anyways, what harm is there in using my power?" Denryu said.
I… I don't…
"Trust me, Karin," Denryu's voice said before fading away. Karin took a deep breath and gripped her zanpakuto.
"Very well, I'll trust you," she said to herself, "Repel, Denryu!"
Her zanpakuto changed with a flash of light. The curved single edge was replaced with a straight double edge, the grip shortened, and the tsuba was replaced by an elaborate golden wire guard. Karin held her shikai in front of her, gripping it with her right hand and holding onto the pommel with her left.
"Oh-ho! It looks like you did have another trick up your sleeves!" Aardo chuckled, "Good thing I didn't kill you. Now, let's see what you can do!"
He leapt at her, slashing with his sword. Karin attempted to block, but as was the case in the past, the sword was too light to stand up against her foe's blade. Her blade was easily knocked aside, and it was only by ducking that she avoided losing her head. From a crouching position, she thrust up her zanpakuto, attempting to spear Aardo through the stomach, but he brought his sword back down, knocking her shikai down and pinning it to the ground. She was only just able to pull it back when Aardo slashed at her again. In a panic, Karin momentarily let go with her left hand. She stuck out her zanpakuto, trying to block the attack, but the movement did not have enough force behind it.
To Karin's surprise however, by thrusting her zanpakuto forward and to the side with one hand, she had pushed Aardo's sword to the side, in effect protecting herself just as well as if she had blocked it. She looked down at the sword in her hand. She had been told that the short grip of a rapier was more suited to one-handed use, but she had never strayed far from the katana style of combat that she had been initially taught. Gripping the sword tightly, she held it out one handed in front of her. She supposed that she would have to learn the hard way…
Aardo hacked at her again. Karin stepped to the side and swiped her blade sideways, impacting the arrancar's zanpakuto and stopping it. The success was only momentary however, as Aardo quickly pushed her blade away and attacked again. Karin crouched to avoid the strike, thrusting her blade forward to deflect another blow and attacking Aardo at the same time. She felt a renewed sense of confidence. She might actually be able to pull this off.
That confidence was shattered when Aardo brought his sword back around and swatted Karin's away, cutting into her forearm with the same strike. Karin staggered back as Aardo laughed.
"That's a nice little sword technique you've got there, but it just can't stand up against a solid sword blow," he cackled, "You should have known that you'd never be able to block one of my strikes with such a frail sword!"
Karin glared at him. He was right. Despite a moderate degree of success, her shikai was simply not sturdy enough to consistently repel blows.
"Karin, focus your reiatsu through the blade," Denryu said in the back of her mind. Karin hesitated, but decided that it was worth a shot.
She took a deep breath and focused her reiatsu into her zanpakuto. She had practiced enough that this was no longer a difficult task, but it still took some concentration. She looked at her zanpakuto with disappointment as she let her reiatsu flow through it. It didn't appear to change at all. As she focused on her zanpakuto, she realized that Aardo was closing in for another strike. Cursing herself for forgetting that she was still in combat, she attempted to swing her zanpakuto, but Aardo's zanpakuto was already so close that the swing had very little force behind it.
Then, something strange happened. There was a snapping sound, like the crack of a whip, and Aardo's sword jerked away as soon as it came into contact with Karin's blade. Both Karin and Aardo stared dumbstruck at their zanpakuto, before resuming their attacks simultaneously moments later. Again, there was a loud cracking sound the moment their blades met, and Aardo's zanpakuto was forced back as if pushed by an invisible force.
"You bitch, what the hell are you doing?!" he yelled.
"I don't know…" Karin answered, utterly baffled herself. Was this her zanpakuto's power? What was going on? Aardo attacked again, and again Karin repelled the attack. This time however, she noticed a spark coming from her zanpakuto when it touched Aardo's. In that moment, she was hit with a sudden realization. Her zanpakuto had the power of magnetism! She recalled an old lesson in school about how magnetic fields could repel other metallic or magnetic objects. The exact details of how it worked were lost on her at the moment, but one thing was clear: she now had an effective means to counter Aardo's strikes.
She thrust her sword forward. Aardo swung his blade to block, but with just a tiny flick of her shikai, she had repelled his sword backwards. Aardo made an overhead chop at her, but Karin stopped it in its tracks with just a tiny movement. Aardo cut at her side, but she swung back, knocking his sword away and giving her the chance to thrust her sword forward, giving the arrancar a shallow stab in the stomach. She felt like laughing. She could actually win this. Aardo meanwhile was overcome with fury.
"You think this is funny brat? I think I've played around with you enough! Grasp, Tamandua!" Aardo was surrounded in a whirlwind of reiatsu with a bright flash, causing Karin to look away for a moment and nearly knocking her off balance. When she looked back, he had changed. He was now covered in a bony casing, and his arms now ended in sharp claws. There was a long tail behind him and his face now covered in a mask that extended downwards like a proboscis.
"What… the hell…?" Karin gasped in astonishment. Though his mouth was not showing, she could clearly hear him laughing.
"This is what happens when an arrancar releases their zanpakuto!" he said, "Now prepare to die!"
Not wanting to give him the chance to do anything else, Karin rushed forward, her zanpakuto ready to strike. Aardo reached out a clawed hand and grabbed onto her blade. She tried to pull it away, but he held on tightly. Desperately, she tried channeling more reiatsu through her blade, but it did no good. Aardo laughed at her attempts.
"As you can see, my claws are not made of metal. That little toy will have no effect on me!" he said. With that, he swung out his long tail and grabbed onto her foot, wrapping around it and yanking, dropping her to the ground. He used his other set of claws to slash her across the back before using his powerful tail to throw Karin nearly five meters away. She was only barely able to hold onto her zanpakuto, and as she shakily stood up, Aardo was back in front of her.
She attempted to stab him in the chest, but her sword was unable to pierce the bony armor covering him. Aardo scoffed and brought his claw down, slashing her left shoulder to the bone. Karin cried out in pain and attempted to swing her sword out again, but a kick from Aardo sent her reeling backwards.
Breathing heavily and clutching her bloody shoulder, Karin feebly attempted to get back into a fighting stance.
"You don't know when to give up," Aardo chuckled, "Fine then. Take this!"
Karin suddenly felt a sharp pain in her gut. She looked down and saw that a long object was protruding from her stomach. Her eyes followed it all the way back to Aardo, where it had emerged from his proboscis like some sort of strange tongue. Karin groaned in pain as it was yanked out, the barbed tip taking bits of flesh with it as the protrusion returned to Aardo's mouth. She collapsed to her knees, feeling faint as she bled from her wounds. The sickening sound of Aardo's laughter was all that she could hear.
"You see? You were as good as dead the moment you saw me! To think that you actually thought you could beat me… ha! Nobody defeats Aardo Verec!" As he boasted however, he failed to notice a pale violet glow surrounding Karin. Suddenly, she leapt into the air, her zanpakuto slashing across his armored shoulder. There was a hissing, squeaking sound, and a wound appeared as Karin landed behind him.
Karin gripped her sword tightly and breathed heavily as intense spirit energy emerged from her body. She didn't know what to think of it. Her wounds seemed to hurt less, she felt a renewed sense of energy, and her mind was now singularly focused on defeating her enemy. She looked at her sword, which was likewise glowing. She felt strange vibrations coming down the hilt, and touched the side of the blade only to quickly withdraw it, finding it to be quite hot.
Aardo let out a yell and lunged at her with his claws. The next thing he knew, he was missing a hand, and Karin stood behind him. Suddenly feeling as if she were one with her zanpakuto, Karin shouted as she attacked, slashing across his armor, cutting through it with a shrill squeaking noise. He tried to attack with his tail, but Karin leapt into the air, dodging it and slashing him across the leg, causing him to fall to his knee. With a final strike, Karin slashed down through Aardo's shoulder and down his chest, causing the arrancar to let out a roar of pain before collapsing to the ground.
Karin breathed heavily, the glow around her disappearing. She had no idea what had just happened. One minute she was on her knees, the next she was able to fight like she never had before. She looked down at her defeated enemy, her sword still at the ready.
"Tell me where Vice-Captain Hinamori is," she finally said.
"Are you not going to kill me?" Aardo asked in a high voice.
"Not if you tell me where Vice-Captain Hinamori is," Karin answered.
"Oh what a sweet, kind girl!" Aardo said in a groveling voice, "What a kind, merciful girl! Yes, I'll tell you where the other is! She should be in the same direction I came from, which should be, ah, that way! Yes, it was that way!"
"Thank you for your cooperation," Karin said calmly, turning to walk away. She realized her mistake immediately, but was too slow to react as Aardo shot out his sharpened tongue at her again.
When it was only a few inches from her face however, a hand reached out and caught it. Karin stared in shock, and looked up to see Momo standing above her, gripping the tongue-like appendage.
"Vice-Captain Hinamori!" Karin said in relief.
"Bakudo 9, Horin!" she said. A bright golden-orange tendril shot out from her hand and wrapped around Aardo. It seemed to constrict him, and within moments he had reverted to his normal form, falling to his side moments later.
"How disgraceful. Attacking an opponent who has shown you mercy," Momo noted.
"V-Vice Captain Hinamori…" Karin said nervously. Momo turned and, to Karin's surprise, smiled.
"You did wonderfully Karin; better than I ever could have hoped for," she said, "This may be strange to hear, but… I'm proud of you."
Thanks for reading! Thank you to nexuswarrior, chiharuSAICHI, war90, Revolation, Chillis, Taeniaea, DigiPal, Nightraze, The Catch, The Great Pineapple MEKI, and Snowy Peach Tsubasa for reviewing! Please review!