Chapter XCI: Creeping Revenge

Dominick flew at Kashito with a bloody face and bruised chest. He'd taken his shirt off, not because it was blown off in his Super Saiyan 6 transformation, but because it was in the way, and he was in a situation where he had the time to take it off. He saw the ice moving along the ground at him, aiming to freeze his feet to the floor. He quickly jumped up into the air, but that was exactly where Kashito wanted him to be. A thin spike of ice shot toward Dominick at lightning speed. He thought he'd moved himself out of the way in time, but a portion of his right arm was covered in ice. He dropped to the floor.

"Can you continue?" Kashito asked. "You still seem out of it."

"I'm fine." Dominick said. "I have to push through whatever pain I feel, or else I'll never-"

Both of them suddenly turned their heads to the entrance of the training room. Kujako was there, scratching the back of his neck and yawning. "I brought guests." He mumbled.

Soriyamo, Shirako, Rari, and Lisa all came through the door behind him. Dominick's eyes widened. "You all came here?" He smiled, then it quickly faded once he realized their purpose in coming. "I was just about to go see you guys, too. You felt it, didn't you?"

The silent nods answered his question. The mood suddenly became somber as they approached each other. "We came to ask you if you knew anything about what was going on." Soriyamo muttered. "Our zanpakuto all felt like they were being torn apart, or something was being separated from them, but now they're saying all of their beings are still there."

"What?" Dominick asked. "That makes no sense."

"What do you mean?" Lisa asked. "Is it different for you?"

"Yeah." He replied. "Hikari Seigyo told me that a distinct part of him was now gone."

"You're right." Shirako said softly. "That is hard to understand. All of this is hard to understand."

"We don't even remotely know what caused this." Soriyamo scowled. "Are we supposed to ignore it? We all felt it at the same time. That's too convenient to ignore. But then what are we supposed to do?"

Silence fell over the room again. It seemed to grow larger while everyone in it seemed to grow smaller with each moment of silence. Rari looked over at Kujako, who yawned again and decided to go back to his room. "Wait." Rari smirked, trying to lighten the mood. He couldn't handle all of this tension that didn't involve him. "Kujako. You think you could still take me in a fight?"

"Shut the fuck up." Kujako retorted without making eye contact. "I'd still kick your ass."

"Do you want to test that?"

"No, not real-"

Every head in the room perked up at the same time. This was a power they hadn't felt in four months, and yet it was so familiar. At a Super Saiyan 5 level, the energy they felt belonged to Kasae, and it was coming from directly north of where they were now. None of them said a word. They all got ready to fly to where the power level was coming from. This was the first time they'd felt Kasae power up since he'd fought Liomara, and they knew that he'd all felt the pulse. He'd found something out. That was the assumption they made. As they flew out, Kashito yelled out to Dominick. "Wait! You're in no condition to fight right now!"

"We don't have time to worry about that!" Dominick shouted back. By the time he finished his sentence, he was already out the door.

The five of them flew north as fast as possible. On their way up, they felt Kasae's power rise for a little bit, but then it sharply dropped off. Soriyamo and Shirako made eye contact, then picked up the pace. They flew until they came across Liomara's grave, then found that Kasae was slightly to the east. At this point, his power was decreasing to a dangerous level. They flew into the forest, dodging trees that were no more than a blur to them.

Suddenly, Dominick stopped. There was a silver-skinned man in the distance standing above Kasae's unmoving body. The man turned around to face his five unwelcome guests. "Ah." He murmured. "I guess I didn't finish in time."

"Who the hell are you?" Rari demanded. The man did not emit any fighting power. Only reiatsu. Rari did not understand the power of the man like the others did.

"Some of you look familiar." He said. "You in the black ponytail. And the woman. I believe you were the sister."

"What do you want with Lisa?!" Rari shouted.

The man acted like he wasn't even there. "But you…" He pointed to Dominick. "You should know very well who I am. My name is Meikoboro Dokuna." He said while the corners of his lips curled slightly up into a satisfied smile.

Dominick's eyes widened and his nostrils flared. "There's no way. Liomara is dead." The others turned to face Dominick with questioning looks. He met each of their eyes, then let out a slow breath. "Meikoboro Dokuna was the name of Liomara's bankai."

Lisa's breathing sped up. Soriyamo and Shirako tried to calm her down. Rari glared at Meikoboro Dokuna. But it was Dominick that acted first. He transformed into a Super Saiyan 6 without warning. "You'll pay for what you did to Kasae." He said. "And you'll pay for further mocking Liomara's existence."

"Impressive." The zanpakuto sneered. "You're definitely stronger than when we fought four months ago. But you've yet to come close to the strength at which you defeated Liomara."

Dominick lunged at him. Soriyamo jumped up as well. "Wait, Dominick!" He didn't listen. Soriyamo clicked his tongue and went Super Saiyan 6, following him into battle.

Meikoboro Dokuna approached the two of them with a smile, but that smile suddenly faded. Dominick and Soriyamo froze in their tracks as the zanpakuto knelt down, clutching at his own heart. "What...is this feeling?" He muttered to himself. He looked up at his two opponents and scowled. His body then turned a light blue, then lost it's form. He'd been turned into pure reiatsu. What was left of him promptly dissolved into nothingness.

Dominick and Soriyamo looked at each other out of confusion. "What just happened?" Rari asked them.

"I have no idea." Dominick replied. He relaxed his muscles and began to walk back to where Lisa and Shirako were. Soriyamo kept his guard up. Dominick suddenly reverted back to his base form and fell to the floor. Shirako and Lisa jumped up and ran to him.

Shirako sighed upon arriving at his body. "It's fine. Just exhaustion." He said. "He pushed himself too hard with Kashito today."

Soriyamo smiled. "He's grown a lot since he's gotten here."

"He has." Shirako agreed. "The two of us still have quite a bit more power than he does, though." He walked over to Kasae. "Kasae is fine as well. Just exhaustion and probably some broken bones. It's nothing I can't fix in a day or two."

"We got lucky." Soriyamo said. "But we still don't know what this was all about. His smile faded. "This isn't an occurrence that we can just overlook. The zanpakuto of a man that died twice tried to kill us."

Lisa was softly crying and Rari was comforting her. Shirako hoisted Kasae onto his back and Soriyamo did the same with Dominick. They began to fly back to their house when Soriyamo turned around. "Lisa." He called to her. "You don't have time to be sad. Come on."

"Hey, Soriyamo!" Rari yelled in her defense.

"What are you going to do?" He asked. "Are you going to sit around and mope, or are you going to get stronger? You have the power needed. I can tell. Your reiatsu is stronger than anyone else's. But that amounts to nothing if something like this can break your spirit."

"There's no need for that, Soriyamo." Rari scowled slightly.

"No, he's right." Lisa murmured. "I'm still not strong enough. I can never allow my spirit to break."

Martin sat in front of Mr. Rievere in the eastern forest. Both of them were unmoving. Martin's eyes were closed, but Mr. Rievere's were open. They sat in silence for what must have been 10 minutes.

"I've set up a barrier." Mr. Rievere finally said. "You can release your full power now. Let's see how far you've grown in just four months."

Martin then opened his eyes and stood up. "I've been looking forward to this."

Mr. Rievere's lower eyelids moved up, turning his eyes into the shape of crescent moons. He smiled in anticipation of what his student was capable of. All this time...you've never let your guard down around me, Martin. And that's what I love about you.

Martin's muscles began to twitch as his power rose. Mr. Rievere felt a slight breeze coming from Martin that gradually grew stronger. First, red fur began to surface on his arms. His Saiyan tail also became red. His muscles bulged and his teeth were clenched. Then his hair turned golden and was lifted up by the amount of energy he was putting out. He began to let a long, drawn out yell. Perturbations in the ground were caught by Meiryu's barrier and rippled up the sides. With an explosion of energy, he transformed into a Super Saiyan 6. His fighting power was multiplied by ten, but he did not stop there. His power kept rising, and the ground beneath him began to disintegrate. Mr. Rievere kept his smile. There seemed to be no strain on his barrier. Martin kept going. His scream became louder as he pushed himself to his limits. Soon, there was no ground left for Meiryu to stand on. Martin's energy had disintegrated all of the land within the barrier. He threw his head back and his arms out as his power began to top off. Slowly, he settled down. He'd blown his tank top off in the powerup process.

"How was that?" He asked.

"Very impressive." Mr. Rievere told him. "Not that I expected any less of you."

"How strong am I?"

"If you would have fought Liomara as you are right now, you would have won by a slight margin."

"I mean compared to you." Martin told him.

Meiryu laughed. "Compared to me? Telling you that you hold even a percent of a percent of my power would be very generous."

Martin clicked his tongue. "I still think you're bluffing about all this power you have. There's no doubt that you're strong, but to say that you're still over ten thousand times stronger than me is ridiculous."

"True, it's probably closer to a million." Mr. Rievere said. "Don't worry that you can't comprehend the difference in our power. I, and the others like myself, reside in a different dimension from the normal people."

"Others like you?"

"Of course." He responded. "Did you think I was the only survivor of the Makara Warriors? There were others who did not master any Powers like myself. One of them is from your Universe as well. I'm sure you know the name Kyono Yogan."

Martin's eyes widened. That was the one that Shihebi told them about. The strongest man to ever exist in Universe 7. "He's...still alive?"

"Very much so." Meiryu told him. "And he's not the person you would want to run into. He's much stronger than me, and much more dangerous. There are others to watch out for as well. If you encounter any of the following people, do not even bother running. Make piece with the fact that you are about to die. Senie Fruyier. Nakuchev Urakirahk. Junsui Yihan. And the strongest man out of all of them, the strongest man to ever live aside from the Father of the Dark and his two children...Shinobu Buvois."

"Shinobu...Buvois?" Martin stammered. "How have I never heard of this man before?"

"It's taboo for many people of authority to speak of events during the Second Omniversal War. The Kais of this Universe, for example, are taught to never speak of it by their superiors. And they are the only ones of this Universe with access to such knowledge."

Martin powered back down to base mode. He'd felt a bit of Mr. Rievere's power before. It was nothing like anything he'd ever felt. He still didn't trust the man. But he was the only one that could make him strong.

"Don't worry, Martin." Mr. Rievere said softly. "The reason I wanted to train you is because I truly do believe that you have the potential to ascend to the dimension of the Makara Warriors. It will take time. And you will face many hardships before that happens."

"Hangyaku?"

"I don't believe that the time has come to fight Hangyaku yet. You still are not strong enough."

"Even with my new power, I'm not strong enough to defeat Hangyaku?" Martin questioned.

"Not by a longshot. Hangyaku is still probably five times stronger than you." Mr. Rievere answered. "There are other disturbances at hand that are happening as we speak."

Jiino was in the dark. Alone. He was alone. There's no one here. Where is he? Where did he go?

There was sand beneath him. The only thing he could see. Grey sand, spiraling for infinity. Where am I? It's that place. This world of spinning darkness. I'm here. But where is he? Jiino looked at the sword in his right hand. Empty. Void of a spirit. That sword meant something to him. Something he could never forget. It brought back memories. Memories of Soul Society, of Shinigami. That's right. He was one, at one point. It was hard to remember. It was the Second Division. The Black Ops. They specialized in killing. They were assassins. They betrayed him, their captain. They betrayed their own captain. One man in particular stood out in his memory. Ruitsu Nimaiya. Stripped the soul from his zanpakuto. Stripped the zanpakuto from the blade, leaving behind nothing but empty metal. It wasn't his fault. His weapon wouldn't listen to him. He was insubordinate. He deserved to be punished. It wasn't his fault. Why was he expelled? Why was he betrayed?

There was a man in a dark blue cloak standing in the sand, facing away from him. The first person he'd seen...as long as he could remember. He opened his mouth to call out, but no sound came. The man started walking away. Come back. You belong to me. Come back.

A white haired man appeared in the distance and placed his hand on the other man's shoulder. The man in the cloak turned around and smiled at Jiino. His eyes thinned and eyebrows dipped down.

YOU BELONG TO ME! He then turned his attention to the white haired man. YOU MAY NOT TAKE HIM! HE IS MINE! YOU ARE STEALING ZANPAKUTO FROM THEIR RIGHTFUL OWNERS!

Neither of the two in the distance seemed to acknowledge what he was saying. They began to walk away. He ran after them, but soon realized he was not covering any distance. I'LL KILL YOU! ALL OF YOU! YOU ARE MINE! MY ZANPAKUTO! I'LL KILL EVERYONE WHO OWNS A ZANPAKUTO THAT ISN'T THEIRS! NO MATTER WHAT IT TAKES! EVERYONE WILL DIE, AND I WILL HAVE MY REVENG-

Jiino opened his eyes and he was back in the southern forest. His breathing was uncontrolled and his heartbeat was elevated. Revenge. Revenge. Revenge. His nostrils flared and his eyes glowed with pure rage.