Isane didn't move a muscle as Kazeshini's blade passed mere inches from her head. She watched in the slow motion of battle hyper-awareness as the spinning blade cut though the arrancar – Gundan, technically more than one arrancar merged down into one body – and listened to the tinkling of the chain of Hisagi's Zanpakutō trailing behind.

Shūhei's Zanpakutō looks so scary.

Her eyes met Hisagi's, and in that moment a wordless understanding passed between them. Isane bent down forward quickly, which sent the world spinning in her head due to her deep injury, and Hisagi pulled at the chain. The blade retracted just as fast as it had come, and cut through the arrancar a second time.

Her time sped up again, as the arrancar screamed in pain.

"Isane!"

"I'm fine!" She called out, standing up as best she could with an uneasy step. She avoided making any effort with her right arm, letting it just hang loose, and took a few cautious steps away from their enemy.

The arrancar was contorting on the ground. A white material bubbled up from his wounds, closing them up, and the blood he had spilled morphed into the shape of a hollow, only to dissolve into spirit particles a moment later. Hisagi continued his attack and made a second sweep with Kazeshini, but the arrancar dodged with sonido, appearing a short distance away.

He looked completely healed.

"That's a bit disappointing." Hisagi said. He had moved closer to Isane, but still keeping enough distance not to give the arrancar a single target.

"That was one of the hollows that merged together..." Isane said, with a slightly forced voice.

"Hows the shoulder?" Hisagi looked at her only for a moment, not wanting to lose sight of Gundan.

"I stopped the bleeding, but..." She looked down at her Zanpakutō. "I'm sorry Shūhei, I don't think I can use my Zanpakutō like this."

"It's fine."

"I can still fight!" She said almost immediately, interrupting Hisagi.

He looked at her for a second time.

"We're going to have to defeat him..." Hisagi started.

"Fifty-three more times." Isane finished for him.

"Do we have fifty-three tricks?"

"I'm not sure. We may have to improvise."

Hisagi kept Gundan in his field of vision as he looked at Isane. She mouthed one word, making Hisagi nod and disappear with shunpo, while she started an incantation. He appeared right above the arrancar, and swung down at him with one of Kazeshini's blades.

Gundan responded fast, blocking and then pushing his attack away. As Hisagi was pushed back, he attacked with the second blade, throwing it forward towards the incoming Gundan. Again, he dodged, lunging at the Shinigami with his sword. With a flick, Hisagi made the chain of Kazeshini form a loop and wrapped it around the sword arm of his enemy, forcing it away with a disagreeable cracking noise. He used the leverage and the opening to swing at him, but at that moment the arrancar opened his mouth, and a red ball of energy appeared in front of his face.

Cero!

Hisagi managed to dodge most of it, but had lost his form completely and got some minor wounds on his right arm and shoulder, and some of his uniform was ripped away. He barely managed to block the subsequent attack of the arrancar after he switched sword hands, and they both crashed on the ground.

Suddenly, a yellow chain of kidō shot from the ground, wrapping itself around the arrancar.

"Bakudō four, Crawling Rope!"

Isane had finished the incantation and, placing her left hand on the ground, had shot the spell through the ground, catching the arrancar completely unaware. Hisagi rolled up and, pulling hard at the chain of Kazeshini, brought the arrancar to striking distance, slicing through him and through Isane's spell with one mighty swing.

Gundan screamed in pain with a dozen voices at once. Isane winced.

If we have to do this fifty-three times... I don't think I can use anything stronger than this...

She looked at the arrancar contort in pain as Hisagi struck him a second time. The wounds started closing and a second hollow appeared, disappearing shortly afterwards, but not before attempting a strike at Hisagi, forcing him to dodge and giving Gundan a tiny break to recover.

Right!

Hisagi looked at Isane and started moving, and as soon as he had lifted one foot, she concentrated on the next move. It was going to be a lot harder, but it was what Hisagi wanted. She raised her left hand with the palm facing forward, and as soon as the arrancar moved, Hisagi threw Kazeshini to one side. Suddenly a yellow barrier appeared in front of Gundan, and as he crashed face first on it, losing all sense of balance and direction, Hisagi's blade sliced through him after describing a wide arc.

Another hollow disappeared.

The barrier shattered and Isane had to put her left hand on the ground to avoid falling forward, panting heavily.

"Take a break." Hisagi said, before pushing forward once more.

Fifty-one to go.

Hisagi had rushed forward as fast as he could, trying to make the best of the tiny window of opportunity that appeared when Gundan was fatally wounded.

Fatally. Heh.

The arrancar barely moved when Hisagi sliced it in half after throwing one of Kazeshini's blades, much to his surprise. The white bubbling happened once more, but instead of one hollow, two of them disappeared, and each half of Gundan's body regenerated the other half.

Oh crap!

Hisagi was completely unprepared, having been caught unaware by the sudden change in behaviour. One of the two clones grabbed him as he passed, while the other made a swipe down with his sword.

There was a splash of blood as the hollow went through two bodies.

"Shūhei!" Isane cried out.

Hisagi kicked the wounded arrancar away from him, and Isane saw the sword had been stopped in part by Kazeshini's chain. It was still a nasty wound on his left shoulder. With another kick, Hisagi propelled himself back, gaining some distance. The half of Gundan holding the sword put his hand on the wounded second half and, with a glowing pulse of reiatsu, the two halves merged into one, leaving behind a residue of spirit particles where the wounded body had been.

"Are you okay?" Isane called, worried.

"Fine." He answered, putting his right hand on the wound. It had been close, it was going to hurt and bother him, but a few more inches and it'd have been something major. "Stay there."

Isane was about to stand up when Hisagi stopped her.

"There's still fourty-eight to go."

"But..."

"Can't you tell he's getting weaker too?" Hisagi asked.

Isane looked at Gundan and concentrated. Yes, the reiatsu was slightly weaker. Also, she could swear the face, or mask, or whatever it was, was looking slightly distorted.

"What a pain." Isane muttered.

"Yeah. That trick, shedding hollows like that, he's got crazy stamina with it, but it does have a cost."

"As long as no more hollows appear." Isane said, looking around.

"Yeah. Come to think of it, it's been a while since the last one appeared."

"Shūhei, don't tempt fate!" Isane said.

Hisagi didn't say anything, but suddenly there was a large surge of uncontrolled reiatsu coming from all around them. It took them a few seconds to realize it was coming from the dimensional rifts. Hisagi and Isane looked at each other.

"I told you." Isane chided him.

"I guess. But this is strange, it's not like the attack on the big barrier."

Gundan looked around, obviously as disoriented by the intrusion as they were.

"I don't think he likes this either." Hisagi commented.

"What do you think is happening?"

"Who knows." Hisagi looked at Isane, perfectly guessing what was in her mind "Should I check?"

Isane looked at Hisagi, then at the barrier going across the 2nd Division's grounds behind Gundan. He raised one of his Zanpakuto's blades slighty.

"Yes. Should I keep him busy?" Isane asked.

"Can you manage?" Hisagi asked, looking at her shoulder wound. There was a large patch of blood on and around it. "Don't overdo it, we still have to take him down."

"I can." Isane answered, standing up decisively while suppressing a grimace of pain. She unsheathed her Zanpakutō with her left hand, a somewhat awkward move that had her holding the sword in a reverse grip.

Hisagi examined Isane closely, and smiled inwardly.

"Okay. But if anything comes out of the barriers again, we'll have to run for it."

"Shūhei."

"Yeah?"

"You're not planning to run away."

Hisagi looked at her with some surprise.

Since when can she read me so well?

"Don't worry, I won't get in your way. Go."

Hisagi only hesitated for a moment before rushing away with shunpo. Despite his misgivings, the reiatsu coming from the dimensional barriers had jumped up considerably, and so far it had been nothing but nasty surprises coming out of them. He caught some movement out of the corner of his eye, but Isane intervened immediately.

"Hadō four, Pale Lightning!"

Still holding her Zanpakutō, Isane was pointing forward with one finger with her left hand, and a clear lightning bolt shot from it, crashing on Gundan's back and sending him tumbling down with a cry of pain.

Wow. I know Isane's very good at kidō, but that was impressive for a level four!

He forced himself not to be distracted by the battle, and reached the barrier. He started spinning one of Kazeshini's blade, giving it a good three meters of chain. As he did, he concentrated on his reiatsu, focusing it as much as possible on the weapon. Finally he launched an attack, and as the blade hit the barrier, the crackle of spiritual energy crashing on one another was almost deafening. With a lot more difficulty, he finally managed to crack it and make an opening.

He wasn't expecting what he saw.

The barrier was a simple pocket, holding just the part of the 2nd Division's grounds that was missing. But more importantly, it was teeming with hollows. Regular hollows. Hundreds of them. The crushing reiatsu coming from the barrier had pretty much immobilized them, and during the few moments he kept the hole in the barrier open, he saw several of them finally cracking under the pressure and dissolving away into spirit particles.

"Bakudō sixty-two, Hundred Steps Fence!"

He launched the kidō towards the opening to stop the hollows closer to it from trying to crawl out and compound their troubles. A moment later, the hole closed again.

I don't get it, why aren't they coming through the barrier anymore? I guess something is interfering with the barriers, or with Katsutoshi. Whatever it is, we have to get rid of this guy, and if the hollows in there are anything like...

He looked at the open area of the Maggots' Nest. There were still many more prisoners that had not come out or been touched by a hollow. If even more started merging and got even stronger, it'd be a huge problem.

And the barriers are all over Seireitei, are they all covering that many hollows? Shit, this is bad.

A crashing sound behind him brought him out of his reverie. Isane was skidding to a stop, with her Zanpakutō held in a reverse grip over her left arm. Judging by the rip on the clothes, she must have blocked something rather fierce.

I don't have time for this. Let's finish this guy.

Hisagi looked at Isane, and as their eyes met, they started moving in unison. Letting herself appear like she was being overpowered, she fell to the ground while blocking Gundan's sword. When his face was mere inches from hers, she extended one finger of her left hand.

"Hadō one, Thrust!"

Gundan was pushed back just enough to be cut down by Kazeshini, as it passed a few centimetres over Isane's face.

"Fourty-four!" She called, kicking Gundan away from her.

"You work fast." Hisagi replied, landing next to her.

Even if she had worked fast, she had a few cuts on her left upper arm, and a large bruise on the right side of her face. And that was only what he could see that was not covered by the clothes.

"And the barrier?" She asked, interrupting his examination.

"It's full of hollows."

"No... No way, more of them?"

"Yes, but they're not coming out, I don't know why." Hisagi raised his guard again, taking a step towards the arrancar. "In the meantime, let's finish this guy already."