"Speaking Japanese" "Speaking English"
'Thinking' 'Zanpaktou'
"Hell Butterfly" "Radio"
'Hichigo' "Hollows"
The Hollow Hunter lifted his arm towards Zaraki, tendrils bursting out and slamming into the Captain. However, the crazed fighter had thicker skin than the monster first thought, leaving only a few superficial scratches so that Kenpachi was back up, still grinning, and itching for another try. Even Mercer thought he was insane, though all others knew it was true. There was no taking this Captain out of a good fight once he decided he wanted in.
"Snap, Tobiume!" Momo jumped in, unleashing a fireball with a piercing cry from her zanpaktou, a blade with a prong on each side.
Golden eyes narrowed at the fireball before racing out of the way, charging at Rukia. She had her white blade held at the ready, and her own snow-like Spiritual Pressure was putting it on edge, mixed with the icy energy of Toshiro.
"Next Dance…" She punctured the ground four times, cold air and ice rising from the punctures, quickly before lifting her blade back up into a fighting stance. "White Ripple!"
A rush of snow burst out the tip and engulfed the Hunter in a wave of ice.
Not that it was finished, not by a long-shot. A mass of tendrils smashed through the ice before it completely froze and threatened to consume any nearby Soul Reapers. Izuru, the frightened blonde, immediately took cover from the reaching flesh. His zanpaktou wasn't really having any effect, as the beast could shift his muscle-mass back to a reasonable weight even if he tripled it before striking back.
Alex recognized the attack the Hunter made as one of his own, and he knew how to get around it. Skirting low, he shifted his arm into the blade and tore off a limb, the arm. It was the first attack that got the beast to howl in fury and pain, taking its own strike, only to have Alex bolt back out of range. Kenpachi rushed in before the Hollow Hunter could follow.
"You're mine!" He grinned wickedly.
"Go Kenny!" Shouted Yachiru from her perch atop the satellite on the ship. She was taking no part in the actual fighting; she just wanted to watch Kenpachi fight. That struck a wrong note with Alex too, the fact that she loved watching the blood fly so much. However, she knew nothing but fighting. And Kenpachi was happy, grinning no matter how bad the scar was, hacking away at what he could.
The Hollow Hunter was still regenerating, but managed to grip tightly to Kenpachi's zanpaktou, the jagged edges digging in. The yellow Spiritual Pressure now writhing around the Captain in waves made it harder for it to keep the blade back as it regenerated, so it shot a tendril out from its chest. Blood did fly, but only from the small wound on Kenpachi's shoulder where it had hit. He'd managed to dodge a fatal blow. Still he grinned for more, lifting up to strike once more only to be pushed back.
"Back off, Zaraki!" Soi Fon shouted, her zanpaktou in its Shikai form.
"No way, this is my fight!"
"You can't kill it."
"Even better! A never-ending fight!" Kenpachi swung again, hoping to lop off the arm that was whole before the second finished regenerating.
The beast turned and blocked the blade with his back spines, stretching them out as well so the sharp bony points stabbed through several spots on the Captain's body. He looked shocked, unaware such a thing was possible, but didn't back down, swinging for another go.
Soi Fon took her shot and stabbed the beast once in the chest, pulling back to strike again and finish it, or at least daze it since the monster would probably adapt immediately to her poison, and let Mercer finish the job. It wouldn't be dead until Mercer consumed it. That was the only choice they had.
Instead, she found herself hurled back from a nasty punch and wicked gouges across her chest. Brand new and killer looking, the Hollow Hunter had gotten his arm back. The claws seemed even sharper this time as they struck Kenpachi and sent him flying. The Squad Two Captain was also badly bruised and would have been thrown off the ship had the giant manta ray belonging to Retsu Unohana's Shikai hadn't caught her gently in its mouth.
"You guys really have some wicked powers." Alex said, looking at the chaos around him and the many differences. Kenpachi was picked up, very reluctantly on his part, and taken from the fight.
"Every Soul Reaper is different, so naturally their zanpaktou are different." Byakuya replied, readying himself to step in if needed. "The spirit of our zanpaktou reflects our personality."
"That explains Toshiro."
Mercer was startled to see he'd managed a smirk out of the Squad Six Captain. If he died today, he died knowing he'd succeeded in making the silent and serious man break his mask, if only slightly. That in itself was a great achievement to him.
On the opposite end of the ship, Toshiro spoke with Momo and Izuru. Ichigo listened in from the side, itching to get into the fight but not wanting to bring the ship down into the sea with his attacks. When he heard Toshiro's idea, he gladly put in a word and they all agreed on something.
Izuru rushed to Rukia to spread word while Momo got to the others and Toshiro prepared the field. Unohana had taken Kenpachi, bleeding heavily, and Soi Fon, still fighting but hurt enough to pull her out, off the ship and was healing them on a platform of Spirit Energy a ways from the fight, but where she could still see if anyone else needed to be pulled out. They would not be a part of this plan.
"Mercer, yes?" Hinamori stood in a fighting stance next to Alex, glancing at him once before turning back, suppressing a shudder. How did her 'brother' put up with such a fearsome Spiritual Pressure?
"Why does everyone call me by my last name?" Mercer responded.
"Maybe later. Listen, Shiro and Kira have a plan and you need to hear it."
Mercer was all ears, and by the end of the report, he was smiling. It was hard for Momo not to attack him as well; she mentally repeated to herself that Mercer was on their side, just a little crazy. Kenpachi wasn't all that different to him.
While the Squad Five Lieutenant told her plan, Byakuya was holding off the Hollow Hunter quite effectively with Senbonsakura's Shikai. Whether protected from it or not, it wasn't quite sure how to deal with the thousands of deadly petals keeping him locked inside. It once attempted another attempt at what Alex called a Devastator attack, the multiple tendrils reaching out to consume those nearest, but found them effectively stopped by the thousand blades. The tendrils were snapped and cut from the main body like breaking twigs from a tree.
The beast was furious, and everyone could tell as its Spiritual Pressure rose. For all the things to happen, it had to bring down the worst.
The sky ripped open and Hollows came pouring in from Hueco Mundo to discover the source of the power, wanting to be a part of it. Now with a fresh supply of energy, the Hollow Hunter consumed them and became strong once more. Any injuries healed in a flash and it seemed to grow somewhat bigger, becoming more buffed.
A head of pink hair bobbed up next to Byakuya.
"Hey, Byakki! Bun-lady said that Shiro had a plan to kill it!" She said with a smile.
Somewhat understanding what she was saying, having had to put up with her for so long, Byakuya quickly understood the plan and ever so slowly backed off. Little by little Senbonsakura retreated and returned it to blade form while he stepped off the ship.
When the bladed petals dispersed, the Hollow Hunter looked around for any Soul Reapers, consuming the rest of the low level Hollows it had summoned as he did so. Instead, it found that they weren't within range of him. Using the knowledge it had gained over time from the Hollows, it searched around. They were too far out to get near, and even as part Hollow, it didn't like water, nor could it figure out how to walk on air as others did. The virus part of it couldn't cope with that kind of energy.
There, one was under the ship, near the water. It rushed to the side and peered over in time to see ice rush up at him.
"Bankai! Daiguren Hyorinmaru!" It was Toshiro.
The effect was immediate and almost stunning. For a mile around the ship and several yards down, maybe even a hundred, the water around them froze and the ship was held firmly in place, all by the release of his Spiritual Pressure. The amount of it rushing over the Hunter nearly brought it to its knees had it not strengthened itself with a meal of Hollows.
Someone had called off the limiters and it was time for some damage. Serious damage.