Updates, I've really got to thank the guys who've reviewed so here's a quick list of everyone I'm grateful for…
biki22: for being annoying as hell in getting me to post this damn fic and also agreeing to be the model for the character Miho Clyne
Kurayami22: for being equally annoying and supportive as well as being the modlel for the character Hana
Kasuki: for reviewing, which is really awesome!
Chapter 8- Menos Seige! Shinn's Decisive Strike!
"This is insane!" Abarai Renji snapped as he was flooded with reports of the hollows attacking throughout the Rukongai.
"We should go," Hinamori insisted, "We'd be better helping out there then sorting through reports right now,"
"Agreed, which Captains and Vice-Captains or Seated Officers are present?" Renji asked.
"Um…Morimoto Rangiku, Madarame Ikkaku, Kyouraku Shunsui, and Zaraki Kenpachi along with Kusajishi Yachiru, and several other seated officers," She informed, "The rest are either out in the real world investigating the appearance of Aizen Sousuke or carrying out other missions,"
"Damn," Renji cursed, "Typical that at a time the Menos would strike would be when almost every single one of our commanding officers are gone,"
"Orders sir?" She asked.
"Hinamori, go contact Shunsui, have him handle the Western Quadrant, I'll take Eastern, you and Morimoto handle the Southern Quadrant, Zaraki and his vice-captain'll handle Northern Quadrant, have Ikkaku rally as many high class shinigami as possible in case backup is required." Renji ordered, "May Kami protect us,"
During this Patrol Eighteen immediately noticed the presence of the Menos Grande attacking the Eastern Quadrant.
"A Menos…" Rei whispered.
"What the hell is going on!" Saito swore, "No way could a Menos enter the Rukongai!"
"Cho, Saito, and I will go distract the Menos, Shinn, Miho, and Hana, you guys go and retrieve our zanpak-tos!" Rei ordered.
"Yes," Hana responded and the patrol split and went their separate ways.
"This makes no sense!" Shinn muttered, "How can a Menos enter the Rukongai? I understand a stary hollow every now and then but lately there's been way too much hollow activity,"
"And it was too convenient that these Menos have decided to attack on the same day most of our captains are out investigating the betrayal of Aizen-dono," Hana added.
"I think this is all very bad so let's hurry," Miho urged.
The three sped off towards their meeting room where they kept their weaponry.
Meanwhile throughout the Rukongai…
"Damn these guys are no fun!" Zaraki snarled as he stabbed his sword into the Menos's face, "These guys aren't warriors! They're just big targets that can step on things!"
"Ken-chan is so strong!" Vice-captain Kusajishi Yachiru responded.
She hopped from a building onto his back.
"Dammit!" Ken cried, pretending to be annoyed, "Now it'll be much harder to kill these things! Now it'll be more fun!"
A Menos toppled in the Northern Quadrant of the Rukongai.
"Oh…" Captain Kyouraku Shunsui murmured as he twirled his twin scimitars, "How cool! Too bad Nanao-chan isn't here to watch me,""
Hinamori unleashed a volley of kido spells which chipped bits off the massive hollow's face.
"This…is taxing," She gasped as her teammate Vice-Captain Morimoto Rangiku dove up and gouged a chunk of the hollow's massive face.
They had been able to stall one hollow while scores of hollows peeled in from the Rukongai barrier.
"Bankai!" Renji screamed, "Baboon King Snake Tail!"
Upon his incantation his shikai transformed into a massive snake skeleton.
He flung the massive whip that drove a Menos to the ground.
"I don't know how much longer I can keep this up," Renji groaned.
"Alright everyone!" Ikkaku called out, "Menos Grandes have breached the Rukongai, we don't know why but all we know is we have to kick its ass!"
"Great speech," Ayasegawa Yumichika remarked, "Problem is we aren't nearly strong enough to take on a Menos,"
"Then we'll die trying!" Ikkaku snapped, "Let's go!"
A squadron of twenty shinigami set off to engage the hollows.
Meanwhile Rei and her half of Patrol 18 arrived in the Eastern District.
"This is horrible," Koji murmured.
Helpless souls fled as the Menos vaporized houses and people with a blast from its mouth.
"Damn," Saito swore, "What can we do?"
"Help the wounded for now," Rei ordered, "Until back up arrives we won't stand a chance against that hollow,"
The three dispersed and began carrying the wounded or the endangered souls as far away as they could.
Meanwhile Shinn and the others raced down through the forest heading for their meeting room.
He flung open the door and hurried to the individual rooms and plucked the zanpak-tos and tossed them to Hana and Miho.
"Let's go!" Shinn cried as he grabbed the last two and dashed towards the Eastern Quadrant.
"We are!" Hana snapped, "But we're carrying stuff too you know!"
The three rushed down the festival streets which already were in shambles with the wide spread panic.
"We have to hurry!" Shinn urged, "We…ooo dumpling!"
Without missing a beat he plucked three dumplings off the ground and crammed them into his mouth.
"You want anything?" Shinn asked.
"Ew…no!" Hana cried.
"I'll have two salmon rolls and one green tea biscuit please!" Miho replied.
Soon all three were munching on snacks and rushing towards certain doom.
They jumped over a hill and landed smoothly onto the grassy clearing.
"There they are!" Shinn cried as he pointed over the cliff towards three shinigami helping a group of fleeing wholes get up the cliff.
"Rei-san!" Miho cried, "We've brought the zanpak-tos!"
"Good," Rei replied nodding quickly, "Renji is holding the Menos off for now and we badly need reinforcements,"
Saito snatched his zanpak-to and tossed Koji's to him.
"Let's go!" Saito cried.
"Wait!" Rei ordered, "Fight conservatively, "Remember, none of you can activate your shikai except Shinn which in his case is a real bad idea,"
"Don't worry," Shinn replied, "Let me back Renji-dono up, he knows that I can help,"
"I don't know…" Rei murmured, "What about Yami?"
"Don't worry," Shinn answered, "Renji-san took care of it,"
"Fine," Rei replied, "Go and back up Renji, good luck,"
Shinn nodded then drew his zanpak-to and jumped down the cliff.
"Burst Raikaze!" Shinn cried and his sword exploded in a shower of sparks forming it into a gunblade.
He jumped up and raised his sword.
"Renji!" Shinn called out.
Renji looked up ad saw Shinn drive his blade into one hollow.
"Idiot," Renji thought grinning tiredly, "He's trying to bring down a Menos by himself!"
Shinn yanked his blade out and cut again but his blade merely ricocheted off the hollow's skull mask.
"Idiot!" Renji shouted, "At your level you can't even make the Menos notice you much less hurt it!"
Shinn jumped down slashing at its body along the way but his blade failed to do anything.
"Damn!" Shinn cursed, "This thing's stronger than it looks!"
Suddenly the Menos began to shudder.
"What's going on?" Miho asked.
"It can't be…" Renji whispered.
"They're fusing!" Rei cried.
"Uh-oh," Shinn whispered.
The Menos gathered around one Menos as if being sucked in. Every single one melted into the Menos's body increasing it's strength.
The Menos now tripled in size and swelled with dark energy. The emotionless mask it wore was replaced with a twisted mockery of the human skull.
"At least instead of thirty we only have one to worry about," Cho remarked trying to lighten the mood.
"Are you kidding?" Koji asked shocked, "Can't you sense its spirit pressure?"
"At least now we only have one target," Saito replied.
"Doesn't matter," Rei commented grimly, "United they stand divided they fall, even bankai might be unable to hurt that thing,"
"This is bad," Hana murmured.
The great hollow opened its mouth and spewed out a mob of weaker hollows.
"Look out!" Miho cried.
"Black dog of vengeance! Tear away at the throat, Burning Thunder!" Hana cried.
She fired a ball of fire that wiped out one hollow.
"At least now we've got something to fight!" Koji snarled.
"Pipe down and draw your sword," Saito muttered.
Cho drew his zanpak-to and sliced into one hollow on his left.
"We'd better be getting a major pay raise after this!" Koji complained.
Miho lopped on hollow's head off then blocked another's attack.
"This is bad," Hana muttered, "Even if they manage to wound that giant hollow more pour out of its wounds!"
Rei released Zenpachi and soaked a bunch of hollows causing them to tumble away.
Cho stabbed another in the head then kicked another in the chest.
"There's so many!" Shinn cursed.
He swung his blade through three hollows and avoided a stream of acid from another.
"Kaiten no Hikari!" Shinn cried twirling around.
A volley of darts composed of pure light struck the hollows.
"Take this!" Renji cried hurling the end of his massive whip into the hollow's face.
The hollow didn't even flinch.
"Bastard!" Kenpachi screamed, "Take this!"
He gouged his blade into the hollow's eye socket but the eye didn't even register his blade's attempt.
A contingent of shinigami unleashed a rain of kido spells onto the hollow but it merely hit then faded away.
Shunsui jumped up and slashed with his twin scimitars but they merely scratched the surface.
"Fire!" Hinamori cried as a volley of kido shot out and struck the hollow all over.
"This isn't working," Ikkaku grumbled, "We have yet to even annoy that damn thing!"
"So you suggest we stop?" Rangiku asked sarcastically.
"Next volley!" Hinamori ordered, "We can't stop now!"
Ikkaku sighed and ordered his teammates to start again.
"We're getting nowhere!" Shinn swore, "We have to make a stand!"
"And how do we do that?" Renji asked as he sliced three hollows away.
"I've been learning new techniques with my shikai," Shinn explained, "I've learned I can store amounts of soul pressure into my shikai and unleash it, if you can get the others to help me then I might be able to bring that thing down!"
"How can you be sure?" Renji asked.
"I'm not but do we have any other alternative?" Shinn asked.
"Fine," Renji nodded, "I'll have everyone transfer what they can,"
He jumped off slaying hollows in his way as he hurried to inform the others of Shinn's plan.
"Let's do this," Shinn grumbled.
The giant Menos loomed in front of him.
"This had better work," Shinn mumbled as he raised his shikai.
Immediately he began diverting his spirit pressure into the blade.
It grew a few inches higher and thicker and beamed with a brighter intensity.
"C'mon guys…" He murmured, "Let's take this scum down!"
"Alright guys!" Renji cried as Hinamori, Kenpachi, Rangiku and the others stood behind him, "Let's give him what he needs to take this bastard down!"
They channeled their energy into Shinn who sent it to Raikaze which in turn grew taller and taller.
"We're with you," Rei whispered as she sent as much as her energy as she could.
"We're in this as a team!" Koji added.
"You better take that damn thing down!" Hana called out.
"Good luck Shinn!" Miho added.
"Go do your thing!" Cho grinned.
"Finish it now!" Koji called out as he sent his spirit energy.
By now the blade had grown to half the height of the Menos and the light was nearly blinding.
"So…much!" Shinn gasped, "Gotta…hold on!"
The sword began to hum with pent up energy.
"Do it now!" Renji cried, "We've given you everything!"
"Saito…Rei…Koji…Cho…Hana…Miho!" Shinn whispered as sweat poured down his brow, "I gotta do this!"
The hollow opened its mouth and unleashed a blast of dark energy.
"Shinn!" Miho gasped.
"Take this!" Shinn screamed, "Final Form! Grand Cutter!"
He swung his blade down and it clove the beam in half.
"Haaaa!" Shinn screamed as the massive tidal wave of blue energy struck the hollow, "It's over!"
The beam struck the bottom then raced up and smashed into the being's mask.
The fiend howled in agony and toppled over.
The massive monster exploded in a shower of blood sending Shinn slamming into a building. Any hollow that tried to scamper out of the cuts were burned repeatedly by Hinamori's kido squad and Renji was also making sure none got to far with his massive whip. Rei and the other members of Patrol 18 finished off anything that had managed to scramble past the attacks.
"Done…" Shinn whispered, "I beat it,"
"Oh dear, this is really too bad," A voice murmured.
Suddenly a silver-haired shinigami dressed in the captain-rank uniform walked up and surveyed the damage with a look of dismay.
"This is quite the mess; the Menos did more damage then I expected!" The man sighed.
"You're I-Ichimaru Gin!" Shinn gasped despite the pain in his left shoulder.
"Correct, and you must be Shinn Ichijoji!" Ichimaru chuckled, "Anyone who has the number one in his name must be strong!"
(Ichi 1 in Japanese)
Shinn couldn't find the strength to raise his weapon.
"Don't worry, a rescue squad will be coming for you," Ichimaru grinned, "Take care of yourself, we'll need you for later," Ichimaru snickered then walked away into the mist.
"Shinn!" Renji's voice cried out.
"Renji-dono…" Shinn whispered, "I did it, I actually beat it,"
"Damn straight," Renji chuckled, "Don't know how though…"
He regarded Shinn for a bit then looked into the fading form of the Menos.
"It makes no sense though…Shinn's attack was massive but it couldn't have been strong enough to destroy the Menos…something else is amiss," Renji though as his eyes narrowed.
"Renji-dono?" Shinn asked tiredly, "Is something wrong?"
"Oh, no, Nothing," Renji replied chuckling.
Shinn sighed tiredly. The attack had drained him of all his strength and he couldn't even stand up. The last thing he noticed before his eyes closed was that his sword's blade had darkened from a shining blue to an indigo color.