X
It had been decided by Shinji that Ichigo was going to train with the old method. He felt that they were running out of time, and they were, and so they couldn't train him to "get along" with his hollow, as he put it.
After Hachigen had dropped the barrier the now fuming Mashiro had been in and built a new barrier around Ichigo, the fun had really started.
Did I struggle this much? I wondered mentally to Shiro as we all watched Ichigo's hollow break free of the numerous high-level kido spells.
Can't remember anymore, she confessed.
The teenager's hollow was terrifying in its own right. His took on a reptilian-like shape, a gigantic white tail, talons, and a sharp mouth forming as his hollow slowly took over his entire being. The changes reflected that he was battling it in his mental plane, the innermost part of his soul.
If he lost, he would be eaten and would lose his very life.
If he won, he had a subjugated hollow that would never trust him.
Either way, it was a lose-lose situation. I could empathize with him, having gone through the exact same training, but I could also feel Shiro's sadness as we listened to his hollow screech for freedom and understanding.
X
"Hey." Shinji flicked on the light in his room as I jumped up.
"Should I go now?" Drowsiness slurred my words.
"No, it's fine. I just need to change my shirt." He pointed at a few specks of blood.
"Hiyori is too mean to you," I sympathized.
He opened the closet, apparently looking for something specific. "Not Hiyori."
"Not Hiyori?" My senses started to come back to me as I blinked.
"Just some Arrancar. Ichigo left to fight them while you were helping Mashiro," he told me abjectly.
"You didn't tell us?!" My voice rose at the idea. For Shinji to get blood on his nice shirt, Ichigo must have…! "Is he okay?"
Shinji looked like he was trying to make light of the situation before giving up and frowning. "He'll be fine," he assured me.
It didn't make me feel any better.
"It's hard to feel things outside of the barrier." I looked away as he stripped off his button-up. "So I'll tell you now. The Arrancar have come a few times since you joined us." Joined us. The wording was paused on. "But they haven't won yet," he assured me.
I listened to the slide of something finer glide over his arms, using the soft hiss to distract my busying mind.
"Ichigo is going to take some time to heal on his own. His reiatsu was injured," he warned me. I looked up at him, hearing the unspoken, if you go near him with your powers, it could make his injury worse. He sighed at my despondent look. "Keep helping Mashiro," he ordered me. "Then Kensei, Love, Hiyori…" He trailed off, looking at himself in the mirror.
"You forgot yourself," I reminded him as the florescent lamp above us started to flicker.
"I ain't worth saving."
X
Ichigo came back after a week, a small orange-haired girl, Orihime, following along behind him looking anxious. The Vizards followed them into the basement from behind. Still a sneaky bunch as ever…
He found me downstairs, Mashiro behind a barrier in front of me. She never lost control of her hollow, but in her words, she had to "chase it around some more to hear her out, so Koi should stay just in case!"
"Hey. Still here?" he greeted me, zanpakutou slung over his shoulder lazily.
I made a face at him. "Where else would I be?" I wondered out loud.
He shrugged and looked away. "Guess I figured you left town again," he confessed.
I did my best to ignore Orihime as she looked between us with concern. Ichigo frowned into the distance. "You think I'd leave you to deal with the end of the world?" I asked him, genuinely surprised.
He shifted on his feet, not answering.
"Actually…" Orihime pushed in at this. "We have something we need to share about that," she tentatively said. "We just spoke with the Head Captain and…"
The Vizards frowned at this information as we heard her out. Her scared, quivering voice grew stronger as she spoke, trying to impress on us the dangers of the future. She spoke of Aizen's plans, uncovered by the Seireitei, to eliminate the entirety of Karakura, to fold it up, capture all the souls within, and press it into a Royal Key to access the realm of the Soul King.
He really does want to reach God.
"Time to train, then." I watched as Hiyori jumped Ichigo, using the surprise to nick his shoulder while he brought his hollow mask up and on. Hachi was quick to draw up a barrier around the duo. "What have you learned?" I asked Orihime, startling her out of her teenage reverie for Ichigo.
"Uh…" She spaced, looking down at herself. "I actually…lost my attack powers during the last Arrancar invasion," she confessed, voice wavering.
My eyes widened. No attack powers?!
"Urahara suggested I talk to someone here name Hachigen to see if he could help restore them," she recited.
Hearing his name, Hachi approached us. "Why don't you show me your powers?" He smiled at her, friendly, trying to get her out of her shell.
"Right…"
She really only has shields now. Shiro watched, pressing into my side as we watched her produce shields of varying shapes and sizes, all carrying that ember glow and looking warm.
She needs offense. But a shield master would really help…I watched as Ichigo struggled to watch his own back around Hiyori. They'll go great together.
The girl had strange powers. I watched as she "healed" her broken powers with Hachi's help, feeling a unique tug within me.
That's not healing, Shiro agreed.
"I reject…" the girl mumbled over and over again as her broken pieces began to reshape.
Rejection? I questioned. I wish it were that easy…She seemed so innocent trying to wish away the pain she'd been through.
X
" I'm going!" I yelled, frustrated, as Shinji held me back from running after Ichigo. More Arrancar had been deployed against us, and I couldn't bear to see him get hurt again.
"Stop!" he yelled back, hands on my shoulders and fingers digging in as we fought. "Rose needs your help!" He guilted me desperately, his own eyes wide as he tried to protect a hurting member of his family. The booms and clangs of fighting from the basement from Rose echoed up to us.
My mouth twisted as I shoved him off me. "Fine," I forced out, turning around and trekking to the basement.
Rose's hollow was out in full force. It had taken over when Rose was playing video games with Love, which led me to have a sneaking suspicion that his hollow detested the glowing screens. Rose must have ignored its feelings.
Slapping my asauchi on the ground out of anger, I pressed my hands together as I dived into the fray with Lisa, summoning a binding spell.
X
I held Ichigo's hand as Orihime, who had elected to stay with us for the past week and train, healed him. Grimmjow, the Arrancar from before, had come back and badly hurt him.
Seeing him laid out on the ground, bandages fresh and white around his head and chest, made me grit my teeth. I kept my anger to myself, reeling in my powers tightly, but I'm sure my tense shoulders gave it away.
"It'll be okay, Koi," Orihime assured me.
"Right."
Ichigo hadn't regained consciousness after Orihime had healed everything that she could, so it had been up to me to bring him home and explain to the twins what had happened.
Noticeably, Isshin was absent. I think this is when he disappeared for good. I remembered him disappearing completely around this time in the original timeline. I was laying Ichigo down and setting out some water in case he got thirsty when my phone pinged.
New Message!
From: 011-xxxx-xxxx
Message:
Rose is back. Wants to talk to you. Good news?
Respond? Delete?
Pausing as I read the text, I made a decision. "Tell me if Isshin doesn't come back," I instructed Karin, who nodded.
That one was too perceptive.
X
I squinted into the bell of the gramophone. Wanting to clean it up to celebrate Rose's success with communing with his hollow, I blew. Dust sponged up into my face, and I immediately hacked and sneezed and backed away as I tried to clear the air.
"Idiot," Hiyori remarked sullenly from where she watched with interest a few meters away.
"I think this is broken too," Shinji observed, testing the handle on the side. It looked to have popped out with ease.
I frowned at it. "This thing really has seen better days…" Better days than the back of your closet, at least. I looked pointedly at Shinji.
He looked at me, the corners of his mouth pulled tight with a small smile. "Don't blame me! It was Hiyori that couldn't take it anymore." He passed the blame off on her.
"What?!" she squawked indignantly. "You shouldn't have played it nonstop!" she bullied back.
"Here, maybe this goes here." Shinji took one of the small pieces I held in my hands as he ignored her. His fingers delicately screwed the piece into the guts of the gramophone, the open door swinging as he brushed it.
My head popped up as Ichigo stepped into the warehouse. I didn't sense his approach, I saw with surprise, apparently too wrapped up in this.
"Orihime's been kidnapped." Ichigo's immediate statement made me fully turn around as my eyes went grim.
"Aizen?" I asked, already knowing.
He nodded.
Biting my lip, I looked down before looking back up. "Then we gotta go," I answered as he flash stepped away.
I turned back to the Vizards, Shinji in particular as I handed him the rest of the screws.
"I have to." I was helpless.
They frowned at me but didn't disagree. They had taken a liking to her during the short time she trained here.
"Go save her," Rose's hollowed voice told me, his black eyes dusty in the light.
I nodded at him, my eyes then lingering on Shinji.
"What are ya waiting for, permission or something?" he mocked me. "Go," he agreed levelly.
X
T he Shoten was dark. The sun had set, and the shadows now clicked their wicked claws across groaning floorboards as they crept toward the single swaying lightbulb in the back of the shop. They grasped at the light as it stuttered a steady beat, the two curling around each other like vines woven into a building.
Following the heavy trail of reiatsu into Kisuke's basement, I sensed Ichigo, Chad, Uryu, and Tessai before I saw them. The basement lights were on—they were always on—and the small group gathered with Kisuke before two suspicious mounds of dirt.
Uryu…his powers feel stronger than before?
"Hello," Tessai greeted me as I flash stepped toward him. The others broke apart their serious conversation as I appeared.
"Oh, mastered flash step, I see?" Kisuke waved his fan as he played.
"Well, I don't know about that!" I waved him off, laughing at the idea.
He folded up his fan, showing his smile at my response. "Then"—he pointed between the tall mounds of dirt—"this is how we'll get you all to Hueco Mundo. You'll have to create footing with your reiatsu. Think you can handle that, Ichigo?" He snickered as Ichigo looked aghast.
"What do you mean? My reiatsu control is perfect!"
I snorted at this, dipping my face down to hide my pressed lips as Uryu tore into him.
"Perfect as a bull in a china shop." Uryu adjusted his glasses.
"Wha—hey!" Ichigo argued as Chad chuckled.
"Now, now, kids, let's not fight." Kisuke admonished the teens as I stifled my laughter. His face became more serious, dampening the mood. "Hueco Mundo is going to be very dangerous. Much more so than Soul Society ever was," he warned us. "Instead of going up against people, you're going to be fighting the twisted souls of hollows. People who were transformed by their grief and anger and turned into monsters." He looked Ichigo up and down. "Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked with finality.
"Yes, I am." Ichigo's reply was instant.
Kisuke sighed. "Then I wish you luck." He went to walk away before he wavered. "Koi," he addressed me without turning around.
I blinked.
"Watch their backs." He walked away without an answer.
Damn him…
The kids looked at me questioningly as Kisuke and Tessai took up a stance on either side of the dirt mounds. I watched with interest as they revealed the bare-bones senkaimon pieces, stripped and r epurposed into two towers in the earth. They knelt at the bottoms of the towers, bringing their hands up as they chanted.
"It's only going to be open for a few seconds," Kisuke warned us as a bead of reiatsu flew from one side to the other. The liquid-like power gathered in the middle before the portal sprang open.
Between the World of the Living and Hueco Mundo was the Precipice World. Unlike on our way to the Soul Society, these walls did not pulsate and bleed mysterious purple ooze. Instead, it was blacker than night, and despite the absence of the wind, I was chilled to the bone.
"Now!" Kisuke commanded us, and I leaped in straight after Ichigo.
Entering through the portal meant immediate free fall. My hair flew up as I fumbled finding my steps, Chad flailing next to me as he grappled for purchase.
"Chad!" I grabbed his forearm tightly as my reiatsu warped around my feet. We hung there precariously until Ichigo managed to jump back up from where he had fallen and create a footpath.
A poor footpath, Shiro judged as we watched it crack under Chad's weight.
"Uryu?" I asked as they checked each other over.
"Here. I'm fine," he assured me. I found him hovering above Ichigo's creation with what could only be described as a glowing skateboard.
"What is that?" I leered untrustingly at the contraption.
"Did Kisuke make that for you?" Ichigo asked.
Uryu huffed, easily upset by the suggestion. "I don't need a Soul Reaper to help me." He frowned. "This is a Quincy technique."
I felt the created path begin to break around my feet and I shifted. "We need to go," I interrupted, and Uryu made a ticked-off face. "Gotta get to the other side," I reminded them.
X
Hueco Mundo was even colder than the Precipice World. The icy sand was gathering in my shoes, my hair, my ears, my clothes. It stripped my face, turning me red as we traveled on.
The world itself was…nothing. We had come out into a desert stage set with a false winding moon hanging overhead. What few scrawny, deceased, calcified trees there were lacked leaves, life, love.
Far off in the distance a white castle stood. Its pale flesh glistened under the false empty night sky. The clouds circled it as if they, too, were afraid to get within striking range. A few towers here and there reached out, spindly fingers reaching toward us as if it was a cat hissing at our very existence.
The kids seemed to be faring better than me. Uryu was sitting, patiently waiting. Chad was staring at his fist as he waited. Ichigo was preoccupied.
I frowned, looking into my own hand. From the moment I set foot here, Shiro's presence had become so much stronger to the point I had asked if she was attempting to take control.
No, she had said. But I feel different. More aggressive. Flighty. I feel stronger.
In a world created by and for hollows, it was only natural, I suppose. In our time we had never come here. There hadn't been any kind of weak girl to kidnap. This newness made us lean toward extreme caution.
I leered at Ichigo's back as the child hollow we had found created chaos with whatever she could find. He had demanded that we take the child and her two packmates, as they referred to themselves, with us to protect them.
The two packmates interested me mildly. On each of their necks, ill-healing bites were displayed with pride. I could feel their reiatsus mixing together intimately in the injuries.
Perhaps they're bonded…? Shiro wondered.
Considering we were heading straight to Aizen's palace, I had serious doubts about how this was going to work with our new additions. But Ichigo was bullheaded and won out anyway.
The enormous worm hollow shifted under us, making my hands fly out as I steadied myself. Admittedly, this one has been pretty handy…It had the ability to surf above the sand and save us energy and seemed to have been tamed by the child hollow, Nel.
This kid has a half mask. I observed the small mask that sat on her head like a hat. It had a small crack near one of the eyes. Is she…one of Aizen's?
I couldn't deny the heartlessness of leaving her alone out here with her pack.
"Watch their backs," he had said, I recalled. If this is something Ichigo is going to do anyway, then I'll have to watch hers too, I decided firmly.
X
"Ichigo…" I sighed. "We can't bring the worm hollow in with us. It's too big." I gestured toward our ride that was now making a sound that could be crying.
The small child sobbed as she clung to Ichigo's back. "The old lady is so mean!" she screamed, rubbing her snot face into his shihakusho.
I bit my tongue.
Ichigo, sensing my rising anger and likely also being tired of Nel's antics, managed to get a hand on her and pull her off so that he could put her down. I watched, impressed, as he crouched down to talk with her face to face.
While he spoke with her, something tingled in my senses. Soul Reapers? Shiro hesitantly suggested.
I put a hand on my zanpakutou, slowly drawing my long blade out as I turned to look around.
" Is something wrong?" Uryu asked, his eyes following me.
Ichigo looked up at this and was quick to stand and draw his sword. "Finally, a good fight!" he yelled out as the sand started to whip up around us.
I held a hand up to stop him and Chad, who had summoned a hollow-like skin around his arm. "Wait! I think it's—"
Before us, the sky cracked with light like a broken window. The cracks splintered before two forms were thrown toward us, rolling in the sand from a bad landing.
"Rukia! Renji!" Ichigo recognized, relaxing. I sheathed my sword.
Spitting out sand, Rukia greeted us. "Idiots! Why would you go off on your own?!"
Ichigo had the decency to look sheepish.
She's got a point. Her attitude was a small balm to my heart despite the white walls of Aizen's castle looming over us, concrete eyes staring, and dusty breaths corroding me away.
"Koi," Renji greeted me, surprising me. We hadn't talked before. Not in over 200 years, Shiro corrected me.
"Hm?" I asked.
"Are you okay?" He noticed my slight trembling.
"Yeah." I looked away, pulling my shaking hand into the folds of my cloak. Ichigo glanced at us but didn't comment. "How'd you find us?" I asked to clear up my confusion and draw the conversation away.
"Urahara told us," she answered, Renji nodding along.
Being this close to him…
"We're ready." Ichigo gathered our attention. I watched as the worm hollow burrowed into the ground, likely to hide until we returned.
If.
Ichigo looked at each of our faces, assessing us. "Are you all sure you want to do this?" he asked suddenly.
I couldn't help but smile at the absurdity of the last-minute question while Renji got on him. "What? That's a little last second, Ichigo!" he complained.
"We wouldn't be here otherwise," Uryu agreed, adjusting his glasses again. He had somewhat made it a personality trait by now.
"Uh-huh," Chad agreed quietly.
Ichigo looked at Rukia and then me.
"We've got your back, Ichigo," I assured him.
He nodded, looking more certain of himself, and turned. "Chad, can you—"
Bang!
Chad had already punched a large hole in the wall with his powers. I admired its size as Uryu jumped through, the vanguard.
"What? Hey!" He tried to stop us as we jumped in. Second Chad, then Renji, Rukia, and myself.
"Last one in's a rotten egg!" I shot out before grabbing the top of the hole and swinging my lower body in as Ichigo spluttered.
I fell several meters before landing. Throwing my reiatsu out, I observed the pristine tiled floor and the whitewashed walls. Sensing no one, I chuckled as I heard Ichigo fall face-first on the floor as he tried to gracefully enter.
"That's not funny!" he squawked indignantly behind me.
I refocused as the six of us formed a semicircle to face the six doorways in front of us.
Recovering, Ichigo joined us. "Well…what now?" he asked, hovering in the middle of our circle.
"Isn't it obvious?" Uryu asked, making my eyes narrow.
"Not obvious," I stated.
"Oh, you two are related," he mocked me, making me bristle as Ichigo smirked.
"We need to split up," Chad interjected.
"What? No!" I refused. "That's a horrible idea." I tried to press it into Ichigo as I saw the dots connect in his head.
"We have to. There's six of us and six doorways." Ichigo looked around. "Renji, Rukia, you two double up."
"Right!" they echoed.
"No. I'm not splitting you three up." I pointed accusingly at the kids.
"We don't need your help." Uryu spoke first, likely remembering what had happened to us before.
I growled, Shiro coming to the surface, before Ichigo put a hand on my head.
"You don't need to protect me anymore." He looked at me, a strange look in his eye glinting at my reflection.
At this, the group sprang away from me, Nel on Ichigo's back and her other keepers scrambling down Uryu's doorway accidentally.
I reached out for him but decided to not flash step after him and demand he accept my protection.
I need to trust those around me.
I hissed, Shiro's distortions falling in line with my voice, before I headed down my doorway.
X
The vents in Hueco Mundo were suspiciously clean. "Tsk!" I scraped myself accidentally as I pushed along. I swore I'd never do this again. I held back my growl as I made slow progress.
My senses were confuddled. I couldn't feel Orihime. The dark reiatsu of hollows was too thick, too intermingling, to sense her brilliant light.
And so I pressed on.
Most of the rooms were empty, I noticed. The more progress I made, the more the lack of hollows became unnerving. Where is everyone? They should have descended onto us en masse two hours ago. I checked my imaginary watch. Time for a break, maybe?
Popping the vent duct off with my shadows, I lowered myself down before replacing it gingerly. As I twirled the small screws back in, I reflected on how human everything seemed.
The halls were all ninety-degree angles, the screws were standard, and they even had ductwork for their heat. I bet they even have a boiler, I thought absently.
I had pictured Aizen's domain as a layman's hell. Hollows writhing together in questionable shadows, all bathed in the light of the fires that would surely be spread about. And Aizen himself, resting on a throne and observing the madness.
I certainly didn't expect a temperature-controlled military bunker.
Crouching down in the middle of the hallway, not fearing I would come across anyone, based on what I'd seen, I stirred the leftover reiryoku on the floor to see if anyone had been here in the last few days.
There were only a few signals. One murky and definitely a hollow, one a mix of a hollow and… something else.
My finger paused as I identified the last signature.
Him.
I gripped the reiatsu, clinging to it like a lifeline.
We could do it now. We could kill him.
That was in the past. He's one with the Hogyoku now, Shiro reminded me. We need the others to help us.
B lood, guts, and gore, all belonging to our comrades, spread around the battlefield as we made our last stand. As we failed.
My hand quaked. Fine. We'll wait, I agreed to her pressure.
But we can still look around.
Keeping my nets out, I sensed for others as I took the easier route on foot. I walked casually, not wanting to draw attention to myself with flash stepping as I perused the empty corridors.
Come to think of it…I haven't seen any doors for a while. I dully looked around.
This place gives me the creeps.
X
The smell was horrid. I gagged, covering my mouth as I felt something work its way up into my throat. I released whatever I pointedly wasn't thinking about from my throat directly onto the floor to mix with whatever else was there.
The lights were off in this room, but the light from the hallways touched the barest skin of whatever had been in here. Tentacles, arms, feet, heads, all belonging to hollows. Some lay on the floor, discarded, while others were stitched together.
An attempt at life…I realized, my gut turning as I took in the six limbs, head, and abdomen.
It rested, rotting, on a medical bed. Long-dried IVs pressed into its bruised, blackened flesh.
Shiro made us step back before she slammed the door.
Stop thinking. Let's go.
X
A kilometer later, we opened another door that the reiryoku led to. Foggy darkness obscured our vision but lined the computer monitors before us.
Cameras!
Each displayed a random hallway or room. Occasionally, they would randomly move. Spying myself in the uppermost corner, I frowned as I looked to where the camera should have been to get such an up-close view.
Buzz! Buzz! A fly cleaned itself on the wall next to me.
I looked back at the monitor in disbelief.
Fly cameras?! I smashed it and examined the small technological remains in my hand. The monitor fritzed out before rapidly beeping.
That's not even fair.
Taking my shadows, I released my dagger and destroyed as much of the room as I could.
X
We didn't open any nonessential doors after that. Instead, at Shiro's orders, I obediently followed the tiny trail of reiatsu a few kilometers away to a set of grand double doors. The trail went mysteriously cold here, making me think there was some kind of reiryoku-muffling kido in place.
I think this is it, I prodded Shiro.
She pushed me away mentally. Let's be ready, she agreed.
Pressing in where the handles should be, but were noticeably absent, the doors gave way easily. Too easily.
Dagger out and in front of my face defensively, I crept into the darkened room while I threw my powers about. I was looking for a detail, any detail, a crumb that said, he's here! He's here!
Both sensing and smelling nothing, I kept my guard up as I continued to harass the stones and walls and furniture as I intruded.
The lights clicked on as I took a few paces in.
A bed sat before me, pristine sheets untouched. Nearby rested a table, also free of any decor or living marks, such as cups or books.
There was a door to my right that revealed an equally empty yet lavish restroom. To my left, a closed closet.
The door opened silently and smoothly. I smiled largely, taking great satisfaction from hacking his clothes to pieces.
This is his room. I pulled the last undamaged all-white uniform out. I held it up to myself in the mirror.
I could smell him in the threads.
Pressing the fabric together in my hands, I lit it ablaze with a fire kido. I dropped it, enjoying the way the flames cackled their way into the tiling that went throughout the palace.
It looks unlived in, Shiro pointed out.
I frowned. What kind of guy even is this?
Meticulous. About every detail.
Every detail, huh? Dropping to my knees, I lifted up the blankets to reveal the underside of the bed.
G otcha! A single white briefcase. I snatched it up and knelt as I looked it over. There was a small combination lock made up of six letters and numbers. Hooking my fingers around the lock, I attempted to pry it apart.
Growling like a hollow, I slowly increased my powers until the room was drowning, the hallways flooded.
"Stupid…thing!" I cursed it as my head bowed with the effort.
Koi! Wait! Shiro's cry made me pause, panting. Do you feel that?
Huh?
Do you feel that?! She was panicking.
Reaching out with my powers was useless as tiger-like blue reiatsu pinned us down. Its claws traced down my back, making every breath tingle with the hint of power it swarmed with.
And next to it, Ichigo's buzzing black reiatsu was growing. He's not strong enough! I saw the disparity.
Holding on tight to the case, I flash stepped out of the room and down the long hallways. These halls are perfect for flash step, I realized belatedly.
Smashing through the small door at the end of the hall with my shoulder, I summoned a seki barrier as I skidded to a stop in a new, brighter room.
"Uryu! Renji!" I was quick to realize their bloody bodies on the floor, the two friendly hollows that had followed after Uryu nowhere to be seen. I flashed up to them, ignoring the writhing mass of people gathered just before them.
Turning over the red-haired man, I sucked in a breath as I realized that he had sustained deep lacerations all over his body. My eyes caught on the large rip in his side before I looked over Uryu.
"It's no use." Looking up, I saw a pink-haired man approaching us slowly. His hips slowly danced side to side as he confidently sauntered toward us. "They're both dead by now. Now, please get away from my test subjects."
I took in both the smaller and the larger hollows that made way for him. They seemed to trail after his steps reverently, both with glares and with kind words that they peppered him with as he passed.
"Actually, I don't know you. You weren't in the data that I received from the World of the Living. Who are you?" he asked, putting a hand on his chin thoughtfully. "On second thought, based off your reiatsu, you're one of them, aren't you?"
His statement sent a small chill up my spine. One of them?
"What did you do to my friends." I gave him a chance to be honest.
"Isn't It obvious?" He threw his longer hair back over his shoulder. "I just simply let them know their place is all." He laughed to himself at this.
Renji is going to bleed out at this rate. And Uryu probably has a concussion, Shiro worried inside me. I could tell that she wanted to come out so that we could heal them in double time, but I bade her to stay inside and to hide from Aizen.
"I'm going to kill you," I decided. It was my job to protect this kid. I looked down at the blue-haired runt with agitation. And now I've gone and failed that too.
"What in the world are you talking about?" His yellow eyes challenged me. "If your friends couldn't survive me, I'm sure you won't either." The Arrancar held his zanpakutou up along with his fist, pointing both at me.
My eyes widened as I watched him charge a rudimentary Shakkaho. He laughed as he discharged the spell, clearly expecting my shell shock to last.
My silent seki barrier quickly came up as it flew toward me. This spell peppered the barrier between us, fizzling out somewhat despite the large amount of power behind it.
"You should try and focus your reiatsu tighter," I gave him a friendly suggestion as I unsheathed my long blade. Underneath my shihakusho, my short blade melted and crawled up my arms.
He looked at his hands thoughtfully as I dismissed my barrier. "This was actually my first time performing a Soul Reaper spell," he admitted. "I'll make sure to do that next time." He winked at me before diving at me with his blade.
i'm quite nervous as we near the end of the story...i've put so much time and love into it i'm not sure what i'll do...i wish that the new hell arc had a bunch of chapters...that looks so cool already...