The next day I woke up determined. I would talk to Aizen and ask him how he really felt about me. I went to breakfast and found everyone there but Szayel. " Hey where's Szayel?" I asked.
" Some alarm went off in the desert. Him and Aizen are checkin' it out. Just another hollow if you ask me," Grimmjow said.
I nodded but inwardly sighed. Looks like I'll have to talk to him later. I quickly finished breakfast then went to the training room.
" Ok guys today we're going to be working on agility. Now then I'm going to need the 4 groups to-" I was cut off by a peculiar sound. It sounded like an alarm. " Hey what does that mean?" I shouted over the noise.
" It means we're under attack senpai!" someone shouted. Attack? By who? Is the soul society here? Everyone immediately ran out of the room. I didn't know where to go so I just followed the others. We ended up at the front wall, overlooking Hueco Mundo. I saw Aizen at the front so I leapt over to him. He looked worse for wear, his uniform dirty and torn.
" Is it true? Are we under attack?" I asked him.
" Can you see them?" he asked me not looking away from the desert. I looked to where he was looking and adjusted my eyes. At first I saw nothing but as I changed the scope of my eyes I just barely made them out.
" Those are…" I said surprised
" Arrancar. Arrancar that I didn't make. Szayel and I were caught off guard so we decided to retreat," Aizen said seriously. Was what I said the other night true? There are more than just us out here? I felt a spiritual pressure rise out there and suddenly the army that was so far off was now right in front of us. It became nearly silent; the only noise the sand blowing in the wind. I turned on my spiritual pressure sight to check out the enemy.
" Aizen those are all espada level. The numeros will be annihilated if you send them out," I said seriously. He gave me a confused look but I just pointed to my eyes.
"Numeros fall back, numbers 0-20 stay forward," Aizen shouted. Akemi came over and stood next to me.
" Akemi I want you stay back ok?" I said to her but kept looking forward.
" I can do this Kaori-san please let me fight," she said turning towards me.
I shook my head then said, " I don't know anything about these enemies and neither do you. I command you, as my fraccion, to stay back unless I say so understand?" I said sternly. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her clenching her fist but she still sighed angrily and nodded. She took a few steps back and Grimmjow took her place.
" Don't worry Kaori you won't even need to fight we can handle these guys," Grimmjow said with a huge smile, obviously thrilled at the chance to fight a new enemy.
" Be careful I can actually see their spiritual pressure ok? They're equally as strong or stronger than you got it?" I said
" Pssh no one's stronger than me," Grimmjow said then laughed at the end.
" Then why are you ranked 6th hmm?" I said smiling lightly.
" Don't make me kill you before the battle even starts," Grimmjow said between gritted teeth making me chuckle. The enemies drew their swords and got into attack position. The espada jumped down and I was about to follow but Aizen grabbed my arm.
" I'm not letting you down there," he said not looking away.
" I'm not just going to sit back and watch!" I hissed angrily. Aizen glared at me so I sighed angrily and kept still. A moment later the battle began. It was painful watching them fight and not being able to do anything. There were 15 enemies, leaving a few of the espada double-teamed and a couple of the invaders just standing to the side. I watched carefully as the fight went on, each side equally matched. Currently Grimmjow was being double teamed by two guys. Grimmjow took a hard hit and flew into a wall, making a crater into the hard surface. I looked down and saw he was bleeding and shaking his head, trying to get the dizziness from the hit to go away.
" Time to end this!" One of them shouted and the other lunged at Grimmjow. I yanked my arm away from Aizen, jumped down and blocked the attack.
" Who the fuck's this bitch?" The red haired one said while I caught the spear the blue one used.
" You ok Grimmjow?" I asked ignoring the question. The blue haired one tried to pull away but I held the spear tightly.
" Ya I'm fine" he said getting up and stumbled briefly.
" Sit back I'll fight for a few minutes," I said pulling the spear forward, thereby bringing the blue haired guy forward, and punching him in the face, sending him flying backwards. Grimmjow chuckled and nodded.
" Damn it brother! We almost killed him but you're too slow and weak! I can't believe we're even related!" The red haired one shouted then kicked his brother. The brother didn't say anything, just nodded. I ran at the brothers, blade drawn and attacked the red one. Looks like his weapon was brass knuckles with spikes on the top and both of them were in resurreccion form. " Hey I was still talking!" he said angrily, " I'm going to make your death especially painful bitch!"
" Let's fight then," I said smirking.
" I'm Riku and this is my brother Ren. Now prepare to die!" Riku shouted then ran forward. I sheathed my blade, fighting hand to hand now. Riku was fast and strong, just not as fast as me. His jabs were powerful but were easy to read, making them simple to dodge or block. I figured out their battle strategy in only a moment's time. Riku would distract me with his punches from the front and Ren would attack me from the back with his spear. When Ren moved forward to attack me I quickly sidestepped, turned, grabbed the spear, and pushed it the rest of the way forward, hitting Riku. " Damn it Ren you dumbass!" Riku said then held his shoulder where his brother's blade hit.
" Give up yet?" I asked smiling lightly but deviously.
" Not even close! Ren it's time!" Riku shouted. Ren nodded and stood back to back with his brother, both of them putting one arm forward and palms facing towards me.
" Gemelo Cero!" They both said. Suddenly two ceros formed in their hands, one blue one red, and combined into one, large purple cero. Hopefully I can block this. I drew my blade and prepared to defend myself. They shot the cero off but it didn't even reach me.
" Akemi!" I shouted running towards her. She had jumped in the way of the cero before it hit me. I looked down on her both angrily and sadly. She actually wasn't too badly injured, surprisingly. " What were you thinking!? I can handle this!" I shouted while kneeling next to her.
" I was thinking… I have to protect… Kaori-san" she said smiling between breaths. I sensed an increase in spiritual pressure and I looked up to see Ren falling down through the air, planning to strike Akemi from above and skewer her on his spear. I caught the spear right before it hit her, grunting with exertion. He was putting a lot more strength into this one. Riku was coming at me from behind, me now defenseless.
" Can you move?" I asked grunting.
" Yes" she said questioningly.
" Then move damn it!" I shouted. She rolled out of the way after a second. I quickly let go of the spear and jumped out of the way just as Riku was about to attack. The two brothers ended up colliding with one another, now in a ball of limbs with Riku yelling at Ren again. " Go back to the wall and have someone heal you ok? You can't help me if you're injured," I said. Akemi nodded and sonidoed back. While the twins were distracted I used the butt of my sword and hit Riku in the head, knocking him out. " It's just you and me now," I said to Ren. Ren nodded and got up.
His attacks, compared to his brothers, were much more carefully placed and timed. These twins were exact opposites in every way it seemed. I looked carefully into Ren's eyes but he kept looking past me at something in the sky. I grabbed his spear, preventing him from attacking temporarily, and turned. There were gillian in the sky and the only other time I had ever seen them like this was when Aizen was sucked up in a negacion. One of the enemy arrancar, who had previously avoided engaging in battle, began moving forward. He had his eyes set on Aizen and I figured out there plan. " Damn it!" I shouted as I yanked the spear out of Ren's hand and threw it. I shunpoed towards Aizen, hoping to reach him in time. The man from earlier sonidoed right in front of Aizen, and reached for his shirt.
" Aizen!" I shouted shoving him out of the way. The man grabbed the back of my kimono instead and held me back. A split second later the negacion came down, capturing the stranger and I inside. The man looked shocked for only a moment, then emotionless again.
" I didn't want you I wanted Aizen," he said. " Too late now I suppose."
I pulled out of his grasp and drew my blade then tried to attack. He swiftly moved out of the way then hit my arm with incredible force. "Ah!" I cried out, dropping my blade. Judging from the pain in my arm it looks like he dislocated it, shit. He was much stronger than he looked it seems. Aizen was against the wall of the negacion, hitting it with his fists, trying to get in. The stranger and I slowly began to rise up. I looked out onto the battlefield and the other members of his squad were also swallowed up by negacion and began to rise. I pulled out my zanpakuto, sheath and all, with one hand and began to build up my spiritual pressure. Even though I couldn't release my spiritual pressure, I could hopefully build up enough pressure to break free of the negacion, just like I did with Aizen last time.
The man grabbed my other arm and bent it at an extremely uncomfortable angle. "Gah!" I cried out at the unpleasant sensation. He finally brought that arm behind my back along with my dislocated one. I cried out yet again as my dislocated arm started to throb in pain. A moment later I felt something cool wrap around both my wrist and the sound of a clink. Looks like I'm handcuffed. With a tug I tried to break free but these wer obviously made to hold a strong enemy.I leaned against the wall and looked down on Aizen and the others. They were all looking up at me helplessly watching as I flew away. At least I was able to save Aizen. Wait why did I save him he was evil? I felt a small pang in my chest at the thought of never seeing him and the others again. He wasn't going to come save me; I was just one person in his army of hundreds. In fact he would probably be relieved since he didn't have worry about my eyes anymore.
I sighed unhappily, unable to do anything really due to my arms. The man from earlier bent down to my height and stared at me intensely for a moment as if trying to figure out what to do with me. And I wasn't going to just let that happen even if both my arms were useless right now. I tried to kick him but he caught my leg, unamused. He pulled out his zanpakuto and I was certain he was going to kill me but instead the last thing I saw was the hilt of his blade aiming for my head. As I fell into the blackness my last thought was goodbye everyone, goodbye Aizen, I had fun while it lasted.
