Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.


After their meal and stories were finished, the boys all sat contently across from their gracious hostess in the hall with only one building a sense of dread. Suichi sat properly, legs folded and hands on his lap, out of the respect and fear he had for the impending opponent in his duel. Shin had his legs crossed and his back slouched and Hoji was just lazing all over the place, noisily chewing and eating meat.

"Those are quite some amazing fights you've all had" Rei said. "And Shin, I believe the large-nosed Hollow you mentioned was not truly a Hollow at all."

"How's that?" Shin asked.

"You see" Rei began, "in my research and my mother's research, I have come to the conclusion that Hollows have certain patterns of evolution that they go through. Once one Hollow becomes powerful enough, it transforms into a giant form called a 'Gillian' Hollow."

"Really?" Shin said. "Huh. I thought it was a little big to be a Hollow."

"Well, in technical terms" Rei continued, "it is a Hollow. After eating enough other Hollows, a normal Hollow will become engorged with power. The only way to compensate that power is to grow immense, like a shinigami's sword."

"Alright" Shin said. "So, they cannibalize until they get too fat to be normal, then they shape-shift...Hollows are weird."

"That's...no" Rei said. "That's quite wrong. Gillian Hollows are the most animistic Hollows there are! They have no single mind or way of thinking. They're essentially giant hive-minds of all the other Hollows' they've eaten. An Adjuchas Hollow is a Gillian that has eaten even more Gillians out of madness and thusly regained a sense of individualism in the Hollow world. I have not yet been able to prove it, but I theorize that there are even more castes and sub-species of Hollows out there."

"Cool" Shin said. He took a bite out of an apple that reduced it instantly to a core and chewed on it for a moment. "Hollows are weird."

"What a solid opinion" Suichi mumbled.

"Well, we can talk later" Rei decided, standing up. A fleet of maids and butlers came in from the walls and quickly grabbed the table they ate at. Then, they fled with it and cleared the room of all décor. Rei started slowly unsheathing her sword, inviting the boys to do the same. They each stood up slowly, and prepared themselves. Suichi kept himself limber and ready to jump or pounce, Shin put his hand on his sword, and Hoji noisily slurped the last scrap of meat from his face.

"Suichi" Rei said, pointing at his with her pearly-white sword, "come at me however and whenever you please." Suichi audibly gulped. He drew out his sword, held it in front of him and measured his attack.

It honestly doesn't matter what I do, does it? Suichi thought. No matter what, I'll end up dying...

"Kick her ass, Suichi!" Hoji encouraged. Suichi looked at him with a very perplexed grunt.

"Don't underestimate her just because she's a woman" Shin warned. "She looks like she's used that sword before." Suichi nervously stepped forward and got into stance. Rei did the same, closing her eyes and keeping both hands with loosely gripped fingers and her sword pointing down to her left. She slowly opened her eyes, sending a calming wave across the room, and called upon her opponent.

"Come" she said. Suichi tensed up at her word and sprang forward. He stopped just short of her and swung down, keeping his cut from just barely scratching the floor. Rei had disappeared entirely.

"What...?" Suichi grunted out. He rose back up and Rei reappeared, sword at Suichi's throat. After a few seconds of nerve-wrecking tension, Suichi laughed and sheathed his sword. "I guess I'm dead!" Rei nodded her head and got back into her calming stance. Suichi slumped down and and sulked back behind the other two.

"He needs training" Shin and Hoji mumbled in unison.

"Hoji Araijin" Rei called, aiming her sword at him and and smiling, "I'd like to fight you now."

"TCH!" Hoji happily scoffed. He kicked up his legs and started walking forward. With his brow deeply furrowed and eyes glaring, he wiped his mouth and grinned with baring fangs. He drew out his sword and dipped his knees and arched his back. His sword arm was drawn down and his sword stared up from the ground at its target. Unohana adopted her maidenly stance once more while Hoji taunted with his tongue hanging out.


"You're not getting any distance from me" Hoji growled. "Anyone who holds a sword against me is my enemy!"

"That's a nice philosophy to have" Rei said. There was a pause where nothing happened, and Hoji ended up turning his head away and rubbing his neck.

"Tch" he scoffed. "You're almost too nice for me to want to fight. Jeez. Is this how you win in actually battles?"

"It's hard to tell" Rei said with a giggle. "I haven't killed anyone in a very long time." Shin's brow furrowed. She didn't say fight, she said kill.

So she's an expert Shin said. Hoji may be in over his head a little bit. Thankfully this is just a duel, so his life won't be in actual danger.

Easy win Hoji told himself. I haven't been training for nothing! "Alright! It's time to get fighting!" Hoji roared. He stood on his toes and let himself fall forward. Then he set his off-hand on the ground and balanced on his knuckles. He put down his other hand as well after putting his sword in his mouth and gripping it with his teeth. "Kaijuuryuu!"

"Kaijuu?" Rei repeated.

This is a legal fighting style? Suichi skeptically asked. Shin had no comment, as he was too entrenched in observing the fight.

"Here we go!" Hoji shouted. He pushed forward with his arms and kicked back with his legs, making a pounce at Rei. Once again, she disappeared, but Hoji was not fooled. He quickly threw his arms and legs in the same direction and twisted his neck around. Rei barely evaded his twisting, corkscrew cutting attack from her position on the ceiling and came gracefully back down. As she stood up, one hair on her head split off from the neatly arranged rest and split in half.

"How monstrous indeed" Rei said with her face expressing no emotion. She took her sword up in her maidenly stance again and waited for Hoji's next move. Without bothering to turn around, Hoji crawled up onto the wall, pushed off of it with his arms and saulted clear over Rei's head. She turned and met him as he started swinging his arms in grabbing, clawing motions and blocked him with the blunt edge of her sword.

"It's scary, isn't it?" Hoji growled. "It's a style I've been contemplating on perfecting for a while now! It stemmed from just messing with people to messing with people while slowly wearing them down!"

"You'll get worn down first" Rei said. After defending so many times, she made a swipe at Hoji. He just had to tilt his head and lower himself to block.

"Will I?" Hoji growled, somehow speaking clearly despite the sword in his mouth. "You'll need to use just as much energy if not more to keep up with me! Even if we both get worn down at the same time, I'm still more unpredictable than you!" Again, Rei attacked, and this time with a stab. Hoji spun out of the way and let his sword follow through with his body. Rei ducked down and dodged him as he side-stepped and swung at her, then she made a sweeping kick that made Hoji jump. Once in mid-air, Rei reeled her back quickly and jabbed her elbow into Hoji's stomach. It was a soft blow for the monster-fighter, but it still sent him to the other wall on his feet.

"Nice hit" Hoji said. He got back on all fours and continued his assault. He made another pounce, but this time he stopped with his hands flat on the ground at Rei's feet. His legs followed through and ax-kicked at Rei's shoulder. One missed, but the other skimmed her robes and cut them. She raised her eyebrows to the hit she avoided and started moving away from the kicks. "Tch, now you're retreating?" Hoji said. "Too bad there are walls!" So Hoji now lifted himself higher up so his legs would reach closer to her head and started spinning around as he advanced. The sharp edge of his sword spun at her feet, a threat of debilitating danger.

He's fighting with a very unorthodox style Rei told herself. It relies more on unanticipated motion than skill, but planning such things takes great dedication to the style. Hoji Araijin has made a deadly art of taunting during a fight... Rei started hopping and blocking the rotating kicks with her sword. Her hops were timed perfectly so her feet cleared the sword, set down, and were able to push up again in time for the next swing to come around. Hoji smiled at that fact.

It's not that easy, Rei! Hoji shouted internally. As his sword faced away, he tilted his head away from the swing direction. Rei was focused on Hoji's kicks and couldn't predict the movement of his sword if it would happen to change. To that end, her feet came down prematurely and she felt a nick. This made her lose balance, and before she knew it Hoji made two successive, powerful kicks that pushed with his legs and powered his body into a much faster spin that he brought his arms up across his chest to stylishly do. He twisted his neck into the swing this time, and cut Rei's feet at the joining bone between leg and foot.

"Nice hit" Shin quietly praised. Just as things looked up, Rei slammed her sword into the ground to stop Hoji's sword from making another rotation. The whiplash nearly broke his neck, but instead it left him in paralysis of fear from having his head twisted off his body from the inertia. Rei took the opportunity to deliver an open-palm blow to Hoji's stomach so powerful it made his sword hover in the air as his body flashed across the room into the wall. Shin's head darted curiously from Hoji's groaning body to Rei down on her knees. In a flash, her wounds were healed and she was up again.


"You are impressive in physical strength alone" Rei praised. "However, you rely too much on your strength to pull you through your battles. There are always other options that can deliver the same, if not better, results. For now, I can see few places that you can truly improve from. With a sword, you are an excellent fighter."

"You're damn right!" Hoji groaned loudly. Although Suichi winced at his vulgar way in showing respect, Rei picked up on his unique expression of thanks and laughed innocently about it.

"Here" Rei offered, tapping his sword with hers, "let's continue." She made a slight motion that tapped Hoji's sword and sent it spinning across the room at him. Hoji was still embedded into the wall and looked quite decommissioned. However, at the last moment before the sword came to cut him, he snarled with a grin and flashed out of the wall. He caught the sword by the very tip of the handle with the arch of his foot, leg drawn far back, and caught Unohana totally off guard.

"Kyougakusenkou!!!" he announced. He kicked his sword hard through the air and let it pierce Rei's shoulder all the way up to the hand guard. She looked quite surprised. Hoji suddenly flashed forward through the air, without even kicking off the broken wall, and took hi sword in reverse grip with his elbow pointed out to send the sword ripping down. "Physical strength isn't my only strength, y'know. Tch, if I thought that way I'd really be dead. No, I'm much stronger than you can analyze."

"Is that so?" Unohana said, voice unbroken and unchanged by the sword in her torso. "Well, I'm sorry. You see, even scientists can make mistakes." Hoji didn't notice until now, but there was a very familiar fire in his belly. He looked down and saw there was a sword in his belly as well, possibly invoking the fire of pain. "It seems that my blow is fatal, and yours is only debilitating. If you really wanted to win, you should have aimed at my head or my heart, not intentionally waste your only shot..." Hoji just bled from the mouth and grinned.

"Oi, Shin" Hoji lowly groaned. He turned around, her sword pulling moistly out from his gut and his from her shoulder, and took a few steps back toward his friend. "You're up..." Then he fell, the pain a bit too much for him to properly handle at the moment. Shin sighed and leaned against the wall.

"Can we patch him up first, please?" Shin asked. "Huh?" Rei had taken off her outer, black robe and was stretching her shoulder slowly. The wound was gone...already. It had been less than a few seconds and she was already healed.

"Certainly" Rei responded. "I am particularly anxious to see your fighting style, Shin Kenpachi. I'll heal him up, and you and I can fight. I should warn you though, I will hold very high expectations of you."

"I'm alright with that" Shin answered neutrally. Rei rolled Hoji over carefully and began healing him. He was healed, quick as that, but he was still out from the shock of getting stabbed without noticing sooner. Perhaps he was in shock over how powerful his enemy was without his prior knowledge. Who knows. Regardless, Hoji was out with a smile on his face...


Kaijuuryuu: Monster Style
Kyougakusenkou:Surprise Flash