Chapter Eleven

Dikayumi awoke with a start, his bow already forming in his hand in reaction to what he knew was certainly a Hollow attack.

It took several moments of panicked looking around for him to realize there was no Hollow threat.

He was in one of the back rooms in the Fourteenth Division headquarters, no enemy in sight. Erina had insisted he rest after his run to Karakura and his little episode on the roof, but he hadn't expected to actually fall asleep. He hadn't realized just how tired he was.

Kitsune poked his head in the door, smiling when he saw Dikayumi awake.

"Ah, you're awake! I was just making myself a cup of tea, and wondered if you'd want one too. Kitty-kun and his buddy aren't all that interested in tea until after they're done training... and they won't be for hours."

Dikayumi yawned, dismissing his bow. "Kit- you mean Nakamaru-san and Yylfordt-san? They're training right now?"

"Yep, they went down an hour or so ago. Right after the lieutenant left. So, tea?"

"Yes, please." Dikayumi loved tea, even though Kitsune's tended to be a bit bland. The Arrancar mod-soul was great with computers, but tea was a little outside his area of expertise.

He went down to the training room after waking up fully, though he knew that (with Edward and Yylfordt training) there would be no one free to spar with. The former Espada and his not-so-former Fraccion just loved to fight.

Still, the chunks of smashed rock they threw up in their violence made for fantastic target practice, so he stood on the other side of the massive underground chamber and began practicing his sniping.

At first.

A creeping chill came over Dikayumi and he shivered, once again suddenly feeling like there were evil eyes fixed on him, watching his every movement. He glanced towards the others were still hard at it, but it didn't feel right to be either of them.

Darkness began to obscure the edges of his vision. He blinked, then again, only to realize it wasn't his eyes playing tricks on him. A black shadow wrapped its arms around his neck from behind, and the cold chill he had felt was suddenly breathing in his ear.

You're mine, Quincy.

Dikayumi jumped away, his heart racing, but when he turned, bow raised, to face whatever it was that had whispered to him, he saw nothing.

The deep sense of unease remained, however, and he could feel that black shadow laughing at him.

Then the chill was back, creeping up his spine, making his hair stand on end.

He whirled, firing instinctively, but there was nothing there. His arrow hit a random rock and sent sharp shards flying. Dikayumi couldn't shake the feeling this time, though, and he glanced over his shoulder, checked the ceiling, flashed around to check the nearby rock formations... anywhere the shadow might be lurking. Nothing.

And yet...

Where do you think you're looking? I'm right here.

And there it was, right in front of Dikayumi's face, staring at him with dead white eyes.

Dikayumi shot it in the face, just as a reflex, but the shadowy black creature just laughed again, baring white teeth at him before vanishing like smoke. The laugh lingered, however, and didn't dissipate like Dikayumi felt it should. It kept going, constantly, maddeningly, unwavering.

I'm always right here!

.

Steve jumped off a building, Zanpakuto held high, and dropped silently onto the unsuspecting Hollow below. The creature had just enough time to let out a surprised yowl before its mask was cleaved in two, consigning it once more to death.

"You're surprisingly moderate and efficient with your strikes," Sanseki declared, alighting on a telephone pole nearby. Steve huffed.

"Why should I not be? It's only a Hollow. One strike should be enough for anyone who knows what they're doing."

Sanseki chuckled. "Don't take this the wrong way, but the rumors around Seireitei are that your past lives have more of an influence on you then otherwise."

"Meaning, of course, that the members of the Fourteenth Division are all violent brutes," Steve suggested dryly, though he wasn't actually very insulted by the notion. "Don't take this the wrong way, but your rumor-starters in Seireitei are ignorant, and don't look very carefully at the facts. Would we have allied ourselves with Seireitei if we were overpowered by the memories of our past lives as Arrancar?"

"Obviously not, nor would the captains have allowed you to. Still, that was a very smooth kill, and you overestimate Shinigami in general if you think everyone could have done so well. Many in Second Division could have caught the Hollow unawares, and all officers worthy of the title could destroy a Hollow in a single strike given the chance, but they've had training. You have not." He almost sounded impressed.

"I am an officer, though, and a rank above you, I might add," Steve replied, smoothly sheathing his Zanpakuto. "You needn't sound so surprised-"

At that moment, a deep dread filled the air. Steve's heart skipped, and his Zanpakuto was back in hand in an instant as he spun to find the enemy he was certain had just appeared.

The sky remained empty, though Sanseki was looking around desperately as well.

"What is that?" he asked in concern. "It feels like a Hollow, but that's too powerful to be an ordinary one..."

Steve scowled. "It isn't ordinary. That's an Arrancar."

.

Ryohime sensed the Arrancars' arrival from the clinic. She had been helping Kai clean out a room, but he felt the reiatsu as well and gave her a quick nod.

"I'll can finish on my own. Do you need me to call anyone to back you up?"

Ryohime shook her head, already stripping off her plastic gloves.

"I think everyone can feel that, and Kitsune's should still be on duty at this hour. He'll contact anyone who needs contacting."

Kai nodded. "Use the storage room."

The clinic storage room had, since she became the primary Shinigami in Karakura, become a stashing spot for Ryohime's mortal body when she went off on Hollow-slaying missions. It had seen far less use in the last year now that she had so many allies to share the work-load with, but it still came in handy in the rare occasion it was needed. Ryohime darted inside, locking the door behind her, then jumped out the skylight as soon as she was in Shinigami form.

The Arrancar seemed to have no intention of hiding their reiatsu, and as she got closer, Ryohime realized that she recognized one of them from the evening before. Suddenly, she felt less confident in confronting them by herself, even if the others should be on their way.

Arrarrico Caro. According to Herald, the lieutenant from the Second Division had named Arrarrico Caro as the self-proclaimed leader of the group now at war with Seireitei. Ryohime hadn't liked the Arrancar when she meet him, and she liked him even less now. He unnerved her almost as much as her father's Hollow had, andShiro had the advantage of years of childhood nightmares and an eerie resemblance to her father helping him in that regard.

She sensed Erina a few blocks away and adjusted her run to intersect. Erina seemed to have the same idea, and the two Shinigami Daikos meet halfway.

"We weren't expecting any Arrancar, were we?" Erina asked, and Ryohime grimaced.

"Maybe we should have been. I think I recognize one of them, the leader that declared war on Seireitei early this morning. I guess it was too much to think he'd ignore those of us in the World of the Living."

"So this is going to be a fight," Erina concluded, her expression becoming more serious. "I hope the guys are on their way."

There was nothing to worry about on that front. By the time the two young women got close enough to see the Garganta above the city, they could also sense the presence of two of their allies, and see them standing in the air to face the Arrancar.

"Herald, Steve, and us," Ryohime muttered to herself, trying to weigh the odds. Muramasa's warning from her last encounter with Caro made her very nervous, and even though she believed Herald and Steve were both worthy of their titles as Lieutenants of the Fourteenth Division... she couldn't shake the notion that they were going to have a tough time of it if the encounter came to fighting.

"I don't like the look of this," Herald muttered to them when Ryohime and Erina hopped up to join them. Ryohime nodded, examining for the first time the force arrayed against them.

Caro stood out in front, his dark hood thrown back, examining the members of the Fourteenth Division with a kind of interested arrogance. Beside and behind him stood a small force of similarly-clad figures – enough to outnumber the assembled Special Units, but only barely.

Three had their hoods up, and two of those wore regular masks, not Hollow masks, to hide their faces. The fourth, a Shinigami by the feel of it, wore no cloak or hood, and for a split second Ryohime almost thought he looked handsome with his long, tussled blue hair and golden eyes. It was the eyes, though, that made her change her mind about him immediately; they had a crazed, evil look to them that made her skin crawl. The fifth member of Caro's entourage was neither Shinigami nor Arrancar, but a Hollow, the very sight of which was enough to make Erina let out a little gasp of horror.

They had all seen Hollows, but never one like this. It looked like what it was – the result of experiments of the cruelest kind. From its size, humanoid figure, and upright posture, it might have been a Vasto Lorde, but there was no sanity left in the pale yellow eyes just barely visible through its mask. Crystals and glass canisters filled with strange liquids and substances were grafted onto the Hollow's sewn-together body, wires were visibly running all over just beneath its skin, and part of its mask had clearly been torn off and merged unnaturally with pieces of a completely different Hollow's mask.

It lurked behind Caro and the blue-haired Shinigami with furiously gleaming eyes, snarling like a mad dog, but the moment the Shinigami glanced back it shrank away with a whimper. Its reiatsu was the easiest to sense, huge and untamed while the others were mostly well-controlled, but it felt warped. Like someone or something had taken whatever the Hollow was originally and shredded it, then twisted the ruined remnant into a form that almost resembled something living.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Steve muttered in agreement to Herald's original statement. "Very, very bad feeling."

Caro finally made a move, stepping forward to say, "Members of the Fourteenth Division. You should have heard by now that the Dioses Muerte and I have gone to war against Seireitei. You have, unfortunately, taken sides with them in the past, but between you and us there is still a chance of peace."

He glanced at Ryohime. "Kurosaki Ryohime, I have had no quarrel with you or your father. I would have preferred for him to refuse the captaincy, but he didn't, and that has locked us on opposite sides of this war. I would not ask you to betray your own kind and your father - though we would have welcomed the Kurosakis into the Dioses Muerte - but you may still take a neutral stand. Fight neither for us nor against us, and I would be happy to offer you a place in the new order of Soul Society when all is finished."

"When my father calls for me," Ryohime replied fiercely, "I'll be there to fight whoever he needs me to fight."

"I expected nothing less, though it is a shame. Still, loyalty to one's blood must, of course, come first." He then turned to look at Herald, Steve, and Erina. "You three, however, along with your absent friends and family members within the Fourteenth Division, do not have loyalty to Seireitei to hide behind. Your power stems from the lives you devoured as Hollows, and refined as Arrancar. Shinigami are your natural enemies and other Arrancar, your natural allies. Join me and return to the side you should have been on from the beginning."

"You're deluded," Herald replied. "We can have loyalties in this life too, and we agreed to work with Seireitei this time around. We're not going to betray them now."

The evil-eyed Shinigami smiled a very unnerving smile, and raised a hand with fingers posed for a snap. The mad Hollow tensed visibly, growled deep in its throat and narrowed its wild eyes.

"Hold," Caro interrupted, shooting his Shinigami minion a displeased glance. Then he turned back to the gathered Special Units. "You may be a lieutenant, Yamichi Herald, but do you have the authority to speak for your absent men as well?"

"I would say so," Steve interrupted. "I and my family stand with Kurosaki Taichou, Dikayumi would never work with a Hollow, and I doubt even Nnoitra, if Charles let him decide, would willing work under you."

"And Vance would sooner burn his manga collection then betray Ryohime and I," Herald finished, a bit of fierce irritation in his tone. "So take your talk of loyalty and betrayal elsewhere. The Fourteenth Division Special Units are loyal to Seireitei."

Caro nodded, though this time there was no understanding smile. Only malice and anger. "Very well. Then I shall deal with you appropriately, as traitors. Kurotsuchi, do what you want with them. Kurosaki Ryohime, if you want to live, leave Karakura Town. As of now, you stand with the doomed."

He turned and walked back towards his Garganta, gesturing with one hand to his men. The three cloaked figures drew their Zanpakutos as one, and the evil-eyed Shinigami, the man Caro referred to as Kurotsuchi, grinned at them with cruel glee.

"Go on, then, beast," he sneered, snapping his fingers sharply. "Let's see how well I created you."

The Hollow roared and charged with astonishing speed. Ryohime jumped backwards to gain a bit of time and drew Muramasa, debating whether or not to go straight to Shikai.

The Hollow was faster then she had anticipated, though, and before she could even get Muramasa into a ready-stance, it was in front of her. Its long-nailed fingers slashed towards her like a knife and she stumbled in her surprised haste, barely managing to get an arm up in time to take the blow.

Her cry, as the claw-like nails racked her forearm, was her salvation. Quicker then thought at Herald's call, Lilynette appeared out of thin air and pounced on the Hollow, biting and tearing at it with the fury of a mother wolf defending her cubs. Ryohime caught herself and tore the fluttering sleeve away from her bloody arm.

"Whisper, Muramasa!"

The three hooded figures had already engaged the others, one each for Erina, Herald, and Steve. Kurotsuchi hung back, though he seemed to have a Zanpakuto, and instead put two fingers to his lips and let out a piercing whistle. The Hollow screeched in pain, whether from Lilynette's attacks or from the whistle Ryohime couldn't tell, and a golden cero began to form in one clawed hand.

Muramasa alighted next to her, taking in the situation with his usual stern glance. Ryohime nodded towards where Erina was fighting. "Help her; she's a supporter, not a frontal fighter."

"Understood," he replied, then shifted through the air to Erina's side. Ryohime refocused on Lilynette and the mad Hollow, trying to figure out how to get involved and help without being a severe hindrance. She had the uneasy feeling there was something... worse coming.

Where is everyone else?!