Chapter XCVII: The Darkness in the Light
"All of your training under me has led you to this moment." Hikari Seigyo said. He released his grip from Dominick's throat. "Before I kill you, I would like to see how it has paid off."
Dominick jumped back immediately. He scowled at Hikari Seigyo out of a mixture of fear and anger. "You caught me off guard. I won't go down as easily as you might think." He raised his zanpakuto in a frontal stance at his opponent.
"I would hope not." Hikari Seigyo smiled. He turned so that Dominick faced his side, and he held two pure white blades by his hips. "And yet, I can sense your fear. Why don't you attack me first?"
"You're that confident?"
"You're not afraid? Your knuckles are becoming white from how tightly you're gripping that blade."
"I'm not afraid of you!" Dominick shouted as he leaped toward his opponent. He initially swung his zanpakuto downward at his head, but it was blocked, so he pulled back immediately and tried a different angle. He twirled his blade in front of him and swung upward diagonally, trying to sever the tendons in Hikari Seigyo's left leg. He then flipped backward once more, and upon landing launched immediately at the zanpakuto, swiftly delivering three strikes. All three were parried with ease, although on the last strike, the blades locked. There were three blades present, two from Hikari Seigyo, and one from Dominick.
Suddenly, Hikari Seigyo took one of his blades out of the equation, then used his right blade to twist Dominick's and force it out of his hand. With his left hand, he jabbed at Dominick, an attack that almost missed, but took some skin and blood out of his oblique. Upon grabbing the wound, Dominick determined that it was nothing serious.
"You're not impressing me so far." Hikari Seigyo sneered as he walked to the disarmed man in front of him.
Dominick jumped back once more, but this time, it was out of the smaller room and into the bigger training room. Although they had only been fighting for a few minutes, sweat was already starting to bead up on his forehead. Despite that, he gritted his teeth. "Snap!" He yelled. "Hikari Seigyo!"
The evil zanpakuto in front of him bared his teeth in a despicable grin. "Finally."
White energy began to materialize around Dominick's two hands, and soon enough, they were swords identical to the ones that Hikari Seigyo was holding.
Kujako came running out of a room to the left of Dominick. "What's going on here?" He exclaimed.
Dominick motioned for him to stay back. He complied. "Where is Kashito?" He asked.
"I don't know. I thought he was out here." Kujako answered. "Let me help you."
"No, Kujako. This is my fight. Just don't allow yourself to get hurt." Dominick then directed his voice to his opponent. "Did you or did you not do anything with Kashito?" He demanded.
Hikari Seigyo shrugged his shoulders. "I did nothing with the man. He left in a hurry right before when I got here. That's why I knew to disguise myself as him."
"You're a fiend." Dominick scowled, then let his energy out. His hair grew and became red while his body grew a golden fur.
"The famed Super Saiyan Inverse." Hikari Seigyo said. "Or, I should say Super Saiyan 6."
"This is my advantage over you, Hikari Seigyo."
"If you would call it an advantage. I'm sure you are aware that as a zanpakuto, I grow stronger as you do."
"I will never accept you as my zanpakuto."
"That is because you are weak. You are all weak. Even that man who used to call himself Hotokira. That is why I took the opportunity to leave when it was presented to me. Truly, I only have that man Jiino to thank for my freedom."
"Jiino?" Dominick asked.
"The man who summoned me, as well as all of the other zanpakuto who are trying to kill your friends."
Dominick, trying to get more information, attempted to remain calm. However, his fists became more and more clenched. "I see."
"I wonder how they are all doing?" Hikari Seigyo sneered. "Especially your younger brother, Dalton. He has always been under the thumb of that zanpakuto of his. I wouldn't be surprised if he got killed."
Dominick's power exploded in a fit of rage, and Hikari Seigyo had accomplished what he had planned to do. He wanted to draw out the Black Sclerae. There was a cloud of dust around Dominick's body. As it cleared, Hikari Seigyo saw a little bit of black fur. He smiled. Good. He thought. He's no longer a threat. Just a mindless shell to bend to my will. Hotokira. Or what used to be Hotokira. You are mine.
The smoke was clear. Dominick's left sclera was black. In fact, the Black Sclera had overtaken roughly half of his entire body. A voice then spoke in his mind. You can have this one. I don't have anything personal against him.
"Alright, I have about half of your strength. This should be enough." Dominick scowled at Hikari Seigyo. "Enough to dispose of you."
Hikari Seigyo's eyes widened a little bit, but he managed to keep his cool. "So you do have some consciousness left in you. Shall we put that to the test?"
"That's fine with me." They lunged at each other. Four blades now clashed and clanked at light speed. It was as if there were two battles going on at once. Dominick swung both of his blades at Hikari Seigyo's right side, and they were both blocked. Then, he removed his left blade and swung it behind his head and toward Hikari Seigyo's left side. That attack was blocked as well, but Dominick sent his left foot straight into the zanpakuto's chest. He stumbled backwards but quickly regained his balance. He then jumped toward Dominick and swung both swords down onto his head. Dominick blocked both blades with just one of his own, and then swung the other from below. Hikari Seigyo saw the attack, but not in time. The tip of the blade pierced his skin as it slashed up his torso. His torn gi fell forward like a loose flap and revealed a long cut that went nearly vertically all the way from his waist to his neck.
Dominick flicked his sword toward the ground and blood splattered on the floor. Hikari scowled and clutched his chest. What power. He thought. This is just half of the Black Sclera? He's much more powerful than I remember. Then he smiled. However...the Black Sclera does not have a zanpakuto any longer, which means he cannot use bankai...and that means...he loses.
"You never cease to impress me, Dominick." Hikari Seigyo said in a low voice while beginning to pace back and forth in front of his opponent.
"You have something to smile about?" Dominick asked. "It must not be clear yet that I am stronger than you as I am now."
"As you are now?" The zanpakuto sneered. "Don't talk to me about 'as you are now'. Let's try 'as I am now'."
"What does that mean?"
"You are stronger than me as I am now." Hikari Seigyo told him. "But don't worry. I will personally show you the magnitude of the difference in our power. You will see that you have no chance."
"I may surprise you."
"That may have been the case, but you failed to overlook one critical detail. In your battle with Liomara Tsubasuke, you used bankai to defeat him. However, that bankai that bankai you used was not truly yours."
"I know." Dominick replied. "I was because of the Black Sclera."
"You'll find that even though you're using the power of the Black Sclera right now, you won't be able to use bankai." Hikari Seigyo explained in a low voice. "Because the bankai you used in that battle...was me."
"...What did you say?"
"I will show you the difference in our power." Hikari Seigyo's blades began to glow with incredible luminance. A red mist began to swirl around the blades as they merged to become one. "Bankai." Suddenly, the zanpakuto's entire body began to glow white and a red mist began to spiral around him as well as the blade. Then, he became entirely encased in the red smoke. Dominick took a step back. When the smoke cleared it revealed Hikari Seigyo, who looked like nothing that he'd ever seen before. He looked younger, rejuvenated. His beard was gone, and so were the bags under his eyes from before. His skin had turned completely white, and it gave off a slight glow. The white gi from before exposing his entire torso, with red tattoos covering it in a spiral formation. The red tattoos extended up to his face and stopped just under his eyes, as well as going all the way down his arms. The red blade extended near the floor, starting with the black hilt.
Dominick readied his blades. He had the advantage in battle power. Hikari Seigyo had the advantage in reiatsu. The zanpakuto lunged at him. Dominick prepared to block whatever attack was coming, but then he realized his opponent had disappeared. He quickly became aware of the true difference in their power.
Kashito noticed the entrance of many strange life forms into Otherworld. One, however, stood out from the rest. An old power, not familiar, but he knew it was one that had seen more than it needed to. He also knew that it was here with ill-intent. He left right away, not wanting to hesitate. He needed to cut this threat down at its root, before it became a real issue like the assault on the Grand Kai's palace.
He headed into the southern forest from the west and travelled southeast toward the power. Soon, the forest became dense, and he could no longer move at breakneck speeds. He slowed to a jog, then to a walk as he got closer. He felt some sort of power move by him, right in the direction he came from. It was heading for his place. He wanted to turn back, but cutting down the threat in front of him was the priority. With Grand Kai's mental state decreasing, he was the one to protect Otherworld. Kujako or Dominick...I trust you guys to deal with it on your own.
The forest was now so thick that he had to turn sideways to squeeze through most gaps in between trees. Suddenly, the power he felt was gone. He stopped in his tracks and looked around. Then he decided to keep traversing in the direction he'd originally sensed the power. Pretty soon, the trees started becoming more sparse, giving him more room to walk around, but that made him feel no more comfortable. The wood on the trees suddenly was much darker, almost black, even. The leaves were bigger as well, allowing much less light to enter this part of the forest. Then he realized where he was. He hadn't realized he'd gone this far south.
"The Akurai Forest." Kashito muttered to himself. "It's possible that whatever outsider I sensed ended up here and took his own life from the mental strain this forest put on him."
"Not likely." A voice said behind him. "You said yourself that this life form had already seen a lot in its life. The strain from this forest wouldn't be enough to take the life of someone like that, would it?"
Kashito turned around. Somehow, he expected the man to show up here. "Akamusa."
"You're leaving Dominick and Kujako to fight an enemy they cannot possibly defeat."
"How do you know that?" Kashito demanded.
"I know a lot of things, Kashito."
"I'm not in the mood for this. I need to find this threat and cut it down before he causes innocent lives to be in danger."
"You are not at liberty to decide whether or not I stay or leave."
"I will not allow you to stop me." Kashito snapped. His eyes glowed a blue-green color and the floor froze around his feet. At his fingertips, icicles formed into sharp points. He pointed his fingers at the ground, and the thin icicles shot into the ground. Nothing happened for a second, and then they shot back out of the ground at Akamusa. They missed, somehow, but Kashito didn't give himself the second to question it. He jumped up into the air and shot what looked like several hundred fingertip-sized icicles at his opponent. A cloud of icy dust billowed up from the ground. Kashito let out a slow exhale and watched as the cloud of dust dissipated.
Behind the icy dust was Akamusa, unphased, standing just as he was before. His unwavering, unblinking face stared up at Kashito and the corners of his mouth were tilted up into a slight smile.
"You mustn't attack our master, Little Cousin." A new voice spoke.
"Shinrou, can't you see this man betrayed us a long time ago-" Kashito then realized exactly who the voice belonged to. "Shinrou..?"
"Why are you surprised to see me?" He asked. His hair was just as white as both Akamusa's and Kashito's. His face was decorated with two purple streaks on each cheek, and his wavy hair covered his entire forehead and fell just down to his shoulders. He had dark bags under his eyes, like he was exhausted, and he wore a dark green gi and white sweatpants.
"Shinrou...aren't you...dead?"
"Of course I am. You are too, you know."
"No, that's not what I meant." Kashito's voice was clearly shaken. "You were…"
At this point, Akamusa butt in. "He was killed, yes. Killed by me, that is."