A/N: Thank you to Taeniaea, The Great Pineapple MEKI, war90, Turtle-chan in Blue, Sneaky Jam, alamodie, DigiPal, nexuswarrior, and jarnee337 for reviewing last chapter! Please read and review!

Hinamori's Apprentice

Chapter 44

The stinging cut on Karin's cheek left her frozen in shock. That tiny wound spelled her doom as surely as if she had been stabbed through the heart. Already the area around the cut began to feel numb. It would only be a matter of minutes before she was left completely immobile. She tried desperately to think of something she could do, but no matter how hard she tried, she was unable to escape the simple reality of the situation: it was over for her.

Usagi grinned triumphantly, giggling to himself as he approached Karin.

"You see? I told you it was pointless to resist me. You see, when I decide I want something, I always get it, and right now I want you," Usagi said, closing in on Karin.

Amidst her shock, frustration, and fear, there was a sudden surge of anger within Karin. She had been angry before, obviously, but now she felt something entirely different. It wasn't just anger for the tortures Usagi had put her through, it was so much more. Never in Karin's life had she felt such hatred and contempt for another person. Everything about Usagi filled her with rage: that smug smirk on his face, those hideous 'eyes' that looked like a pair of some sort of infected organ, his constant chuckling and giggling, the way he looked down on her, his trickery and cowardice in battle…

She hated him so damn much she couldn't even understand it.

"Why don't you put that sword down?" Usagi said with a smirk, "Of course, you'll lose your ability to hold it soon anyway, but it would certainly be a nice gesture to make while you still have a bit of control over your muscles."

Instead of dropping her sword however, Karin swung it with all her strength. Usagi, apparently expecting her to drop to the ground at any moment, was caught by surprise. Stepping back, he managed to avoid losing his head to Karin's blade, but ended up with a wound on his face matching Karin's.

"H-How?" he said, displaying a very rare expression of shock, "How can you still move? I developed that poison myself! Your muscles should be useless right now! I know I hit you! What the hell did you do?"

Karin did not answer him, instead focusing on her own body, which she realized was not going numb the way it did in the past when subjected to Usagi's poison. She flexed her limbs and opened and closed her hands to be sure, and grinned when she was sure that she had complete control over her body.

"I don't know why, but I guess that paralyzing stuff isn't as well-designed as you thought," she said.

"No, it can't be. Everything I design is as perfect as I am!" Usagi shouted, "It was those miserable treacherous creatures, wasn't it? They gave you the antidote – no, snuck it into your food! No wait – I destroyed all doses of the antidote three months ago! They can't have gotten hold of it! Was I sabotaged? Was my poison diluted? No, who would dare cross me? Could you have built up an immunity? I subjected you to the poison about eight or nine times… but none of the test subjects developed immunity! That can't be! It doesn't have such a flaw! This is ridiculous! Unimaginable! Absolutely-"

He was cut off by another attack by Karin, this one a thrusting attack, that he just barely managed to side step and counterattack with his weapon.

"Sorry to interrupt your rant, but I'm hoping to get out of here as soon as I can, and I don't care to waste time listening to you complain about your poison not working the right way," Karin said.

"Don't bother worrying about time," Usagi sneered, "The amount of time you have left depends on how long I intend to play around with you before killing you! I've given up on keeping you as a live specimin; now I think I'd just like to study your remains. It's a shame I won't have a perfect specimin, but with one as uncooperative as yourself, it's the only option. I look forward to seeing your face as I kill you."

Usagi's weapon went back into its whip form, and he swung it at Karin. This time she was prepared, however, dodging the whip strike and swinging her sword at Usagi, forcing him to return his weapon to its rigid state so that he could block it. While her sword was locked against his weapon, Usagi reached into his robes with his free hand to pull out a pair of sharp-edged metal disks, which he threw at Karin with a flick of his wrist. They were not fast enough, however, and Karin was able to duck her head to avoid them.

"That was a desperate move," Karin noted, "That sort of weapon is designed to be thrown from a distance, and does not have enough force at close range. Of course, if you threw it from a distance I would have been able to use Antei Teisei to deflect them. The outcome of this match is decided. Your poison doesn't affect me, I destroyed your gun, any grenade or other throwing weapon you have is useless thanks to Antei Teisei, and that weapon of yours is insufficient to deliver killing blows of its own. Your true nature is clear to me now: you're not strong enough to beat others with your own strength, so you use tricks and deceit to defeat opponents stronger than you. When your weapons are rendered useless, you're not even strong enough to beat me, and I've been training for less than a year. It's over, Usagi Usaki. Surrender, or I will have to kill you."

Usagi seemed to shake in anger for a moment, but suddenly grinned and let out a harsh laugh.

"You? Kill me?" he shrieked, "Me, Usagi Uzaki, killed by the likes of you? Oh, that's rich! You never told me you were a comedian! Aren't you forgetting something? I hold the key to your life!"

Usagi leapt back from Karin and reached into his robes, pulling out a small device with several buttons on it. "As long as that bomb is still inside you, your life remains only on my whim! And that whim just ended! This won't be as painful as I would have liked, but it will do. See you in hell, Karin Kurosaki!" Usagi pressed a button on the device.

Nothing happened.

The look of absolute glee on Usagi's face rapidly changed to surprise, then to confusion and finally to anger.

"What...? No… No! No, that's impossible!" he angrily screamed, "That was one of my best bombs! Designed specifically to remain active even within a person's digestive tract! You should be a pile of burning meat chunks right now! How? How do you keep making a mockery of my glorious creations?"

Karin had a look of enormous relief on her face, sighing in relief before answering Usagi.

"I'm glad it worked. I wasn't sure it would, but I'm glad I tried it," she said.

"What? What did you do?" Usagi said in agitation.

"Once, back when I was alive, my sister Yuzu decided to make my brother's computer all pretty, so she put all sorts of decorations on it," Karin said casually, barely suppressing a laugh, "One of those decorations was a big magnet in the shape of a ladybug. Do you know what happens when a computer gets too close to a strong magnet?"

"You bitch…" Usagi growled. Karin smirked at him.

"That's right, magnets really mess up computers and things with electronic components. That includes your bomb. I knew that something like that would have to have some sort of electronics involved, so the solution was clear. All I needed was a magnet, but where to find one? That's when I remembered: my Zanpakuto manipulates electromagnetism! As soon as I got my Zanpakuto back, I directed electromagnetic waves towards my stomach where the bomb was. I was afraid it wouldn't work, but it looks like my worries were unnecessary. So Usagi, will you reconsider your answer? Your last trump card is gone. You still have a chance to surrender."

"Never…" Usagi whispered furiously, "Never! Not in a thousand years!"

"That's what I thought," Karin said with a grim smile.


Aurion's Zanpakuto glowed a bright golden white for a moment, only for it to return to normal within seconds. Momo and Toushiro did not let their guards down for a second, however. They knew that if they made even the slightest mistake, they could end up losing their lives.

"Momo, how much control do you have over your Bankai?" Toushiro said quietly, careful not to take his eyes off of Aurion.

"Not enough," Momo admitted, "Tenra is right out of the question, and the heat blasts are too unstable to be used reliably. The only thing I can confidently say I can handle is amplified Kido."

"Fine, then you'll be my support," Toushiro said, "I'll engage him directly, you support me with Kido. Got it?"

"Yeah," Momo said.

While they whispered to eachother, Aurion raised his sword so that it was vertically in front of of him.

"First curse," he rumbled, "Gnats."

His blade suddenly turned black. He flicked his wrist, and a huge cloud of tiny insects appeared from the sword. They immediately flew towards Momo and Toushiro, who were soon engulfed by the swarm.

The insects were tiny, smaller than a pinhead, but they were extremely numerous. Neither Momo nor Toushiro even tried to avoid the massive number of tiny creatures bearing down on them. The gnats quickly covered them, flying into their eyes, ears, and nostrils and crawling all over their skin. Momo and Toushiro spat out the bugs that flew into their mouth, but neither of them dropped their stances, which seemed to impress Aurion.

"You are both very disciplined," he commented, "Many would lose their composure and leave openings in their defense when confronted with this technique. You two are barely distracted at all. However, let's see if you can ignore this so easily. Second curse, fire."

With a swing of his sword, Aurion summoned a wall of flames that rushed toward Momo and Toushiro.

"Bakudo 45, Soft Water Shield!" Momo shouted. Momo and Toushiro were immediately surrounded by a bubble of what seemed to be water. When the flames came into contact with it, the barrier rippled a bit but held.

"Third curse," Aurion said, "Drought."

As if under intense heat, the water barrier that Momo had summoned suddenly dried up. Before Aurion could do anything else, Toushiro counter-attacked, swinging his sword to summon an ice dragon. When his sword finished its arc, however, no ice dragon appeared.

"You're still under the effect of my 'drought' you know," Aurion said, "Your ice powers will do you no good here. If you wish to defeat me, you'll have to come and fight me up close like a man."

Toushiro didn't budge. He knew perfectly well that he couldn't win against Aurion. This was the man who supposedly had been as strong as Yamamoto in his youth. He had far more experience than Toushiro, and have been able to easily defeat both of them. Toushiro had no idea why they had lasted as long as they had.

"Toushiro, I have an idea," Momo said, "With his powers, a long range fight is out of the question. At the same time however, we can't match him in power so such a fight would be suicide. Our only choice is to alter the playing field so that we have a chance."

"What are you talking about?"

"Just trust me," Momo smiled.

"Whatever you say…"

Momo straightened up and clasped her hands together. Reiatsu gathered around her.

"Oh great wise ones, let us seek the truth! Free us from this limited plane. May we seek the knowledge from good and evil, wise man and fool! Take us above our petty understanding, to another time and another place! Bakudo 97, Blue Mist!"

Everything seemed to freeze. A bright white light flashed, followed by a fog of blue that swirled around them. The next thing they knew, they were no longer in the room Aurion had led them into. They didn't seem to be anywhere at all, in fact. There were no walls, no ceiling, not even a floor. There was nothing but Momo, Toushiro, Aurion, and a few wisps of blue-tinted mist.

"What is this place?" Aurion asked calmly, his eyes narrowed. Hw didn't seem panicked, but did not have his calm demeanor from before.

"We have been taken into the Blue Mist," Momo said, "In our reality, we could never beat you, you're simply too powerful. This place doesn't exist within our reality, however. It is outside of time and reality as you know it. I make the rules here. Here we can defeat you."