Well I'm back with a new chapter. So far I've written 11 chapters so far so yay to me. Anyways enjoy the chapter and review!
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach
Chapter 11- The Startling Announcement, Underground Hollow Explode!
"What a nice day," Shinn remarked as he stepped out of the public bath and toweled his hair.
His black hair glistened in the sunlight as he wrung his hair dry.
He slipped on his uniform then stepped outside only to run right into a grim-faced Abarai Renji.
"S-sorry Renji-dono!" Shinn apologized.
"Forget it," Renji replied, "Let's find the rest of your patrol, I have an announcement to make to you guys,"
Shinn nodded and tailed after his captain.
Meanwhile right outside of the girl's public bath…
"C'mon lemme have a peek!" Saito begged as he tried to push Cho away from the peeping hole they had made from behind the bushes.
Cho had approached Koji and Saito with the brilliant idea of drilling a small hole into the women's bath for some "observing of the activities of the opposing sex". Basically he insisted that they come with him to check out the girls. Saito readily agreed when he learned that Hinamori frequented the open baths and Koji agreed happily as long as they weren't caught.
Together along with some "borrowed" tools they easily drilled a hole through the wooden poles that mode of the open air baths and waited like fishers as their "prey entered the waters.
"Shh!" Cho hissed, "They're coming inside!"
Miho, Rei, and Hana stepped out into the open bath garbed only in white towels that hugged to their bodies.
"Booyah!" Cho hissed.
"Lemme see!" Koji pleaded as he shoved Cho.
"This is sooo nice," Rei sighed as she sank into the hot water.
Hana and Miho followed and relaxed in the soothing hot waters.
"C'mon stand up without a towel already!" Saito whined.
"If they catch us we are sooo screwed," Koji mumbled, "But it'll be worth it!"
"Shut up Koji," Saito hissed.
"You shut up!" Cho remarked, "They'll hear us!"
"Did you hear something?" Rei asked her companions.
Miho blinked in confusion while Hana's eyes narrowed sharply.
"I hear voices from behind me," Hana whispered from the corner of her mouth.
Her eyes were like that of a starving hawk now as she formulated a strategy to ensnare the perverted villans that were taking advantage of their time in the baths.
"Miho stay here while we got get some soap and to wash each other's backs!" Rei announced loudly.
"Um…okay Rei-san but did you have to shout?" Miho asked.
Hana and Rei both rolled their eyes as they grabbed their towels. They swiftly stepped back into the house.
"Damn, two down," Cho whined, "But at least Miho-chan is still there!"
It just so happened that Renji and Shinn were walking down the pathway that ran alongside the fence of the bath. Renji easily spotted the three crouched outside the fence huddling around something.
"What are they doing?" Shinn asked confused.
"Dunno," Renji sighed oblivious of what the fenced wall obscured from the pedestrians eyes and Shinn would have been clueless as to why they would have been there even though if he knew what the place was.
The two walked up casually to the three boys who were too preoccupied to notice their arrival.
"Um…what are you guys doing?" Renji asked from behind the three.
"HOLY CRAP! IT'S RENJI-SAN! RUUUNNNNN!" Cho screamed as he and his two companions dashed madly like death itself chased them.
"Uh…Cho-san is very weird today," Shinn remarked.
Suddenly they noticed a spark and a crackle from behind the fence.
"Um…what's that noise?" Renji asked.
"Sounds like fire," Shinn replied.
Suddenly the two were soaked with steaming hot water.
"Ha!" Hana shouted from her position from on top of the fence, "That'll teach you from peeping!"
"I swear I'll…" Rei began then her eyes widened when she spotted her two victims, Wah! Renji-san, Shinn-kun!"
"Er…what's going on?" Renji asked as water dripped from his soaked hair.
"I think we were just at the wrong place at the wrong time," Shinn replied as he wrung his drenched uniform.
Later when the two had dried there clothes and had gathered Patrol 18 in the meeting room Renji had finally made his announcement.
"Due to the attacks of hollows we have been required to recall all captains from their current missions for an undefined period of time," Renji explained, "However we cannot afford to withdraw our stationed shinigami in the material world, quite the contrary; we require a group of shinigami to perform a special operation there."
"The real world?" Hana exclaimed, "That's amazing…"
"Wow," Saito cheered, "I've always wanted to go to one of their rock concerts, I hear that out there they're way wilder!"
"Yes, but that's not why I need you to go," He sighed, "Aizen has been spotted there several times and I believe he is currently inhabiting a gigai as well as the other two ex-captains."
"So why are you sending a group of inexperience shinigami?" Rei asked suspiciously, "Something involving the ex-captains seems like the work of at least a group of seated officers, why us?"
"Because right now massive hollows and more bizarre hybrids have been appearing lately and the 1st Division captain has ordered that all captains ranking above 6th division excluding myself to investigate the situation leaving the vice-captains in charge," He explained, "And the few captains that remain are much too preoccupied,"
"But that doesn't explain why your sending inexperienced shinigami to investigate such a high level matter," Rei argued, "We are stretched thin but not that much,"
"Several seated officers will be accompanying you as well as Patrol 20 from 13th Division," Renji replied, "In fact there will be indeed a large number of shinigami being dispatched,"
"Anyone we know?" Koji asked hopefully.
"Several you have no doubt no from the academy but I'm sure there'll be many new faces," Renji chuckled.
"How can you be so casual about this?" Hana asked angrily, "We're being sent to look for Aizen, he's one of the most dangerous…"
"Its how some people deal with the pressure," Shinn explained.
"Koji-chan is nervous as well," Miho added softly, "We all are,"
Saito sighed inwardly then he looked up and regarded his friends.
"Our orders are to go to the material world to look for a dangerous fugitive, we have to carry this out," Saito explained, "We all took an oath when we became shinigami,"
Cho nodded in agreement.
"We will do everything in our power to protect you Hana-chan!" He cried reaching out to embrace the frustrated shinigami.
"Go to hell!" Hana snarled kicking him through the wall.
"I just repaired that wall," Shinn sighed.
"A friend of mine shall meet you at the courtyard with a gateway spell ready, travel lightly and be careful, you are to merely assess what you see and investigate," Renji warned, "A direct confrontation will not help any of us,"
"Then let's go!" Cho exclaimed happily.
"A word of warning," Renji sighed, "In the real world one's spirit pressure is stunted severally," He explained, "None of you will be nearly as strong as you are now making you almost nothing,"
"Understood," Rei replied grimly.
The group bowed respectfully then hurried out of the meeting room towards the main courtyard.
"This is irritating," Rei muttered, "It just doesn't add up!"
"Few things do in life," Saito sighed.
They walked down a forest path that had grown rampantly, with weeds and uncut grass, for some time.
What happened next all sensed yet happened to quickly to react to.
A dark presence clouded their minds like as though the air had suddenly become unnaturally cold. Not the cold that you simply bundled up to prevent, the cold that cut into your soul leaving a void nothing can possibly hope to fill.
"Hol…" Shinn began but was interrupted when the ground suddenly erupted from beneath his feet.
A massive hollow stood in the middle of a massive crater. It resembled an ogre with it's massive yet hulking form. It was hunched forward with massive shoulders that gave him the appearance of a bulky and yet strong monster. The bone-white color that covered his body was streaked with red veins that ran along both his arms and legs. His mask resembled a bird-like skull. With a long pointed nose and yet had the eyes of a tiger, the eyes of a predator and as always a gaping hole lay in the center of it's chest.
"Burst, Raikaze!" Shinn shouted but suddenly he felt a searing hot pain emitting from his blade. Black sears began to form but halted at his elbow. The blade became streaked in black like a network of veins through a translucent arm, "The seal…it's beginning to reform!"
His eyes widened in horror as the black rune-like circle formed around his stomach. He winced in pain which was all the time the hollow needed.
The hollow drove his fist into the earth. The veins along his arm began pulsing and emitting a horrible shrieking noise causing everyone to cover their ears. A fissure split open and struck the floor beneath Shinn causing him to lose his balance and tumble into the hole.
"Hold still you scumbag!" Saito snapped as he jumped onto the hollow's back and scored a cut into the back.
The hollow snarled furiously and shook the long-haired shinigami away.
"Hana, fire!" Saito cried once he had landed.
"Enflame into the night's sky, burn away the skin till nothing but ash stays!" Hana cried casting a ball of fire onto the hollow.
Skin burned and peeled away but the hollow was still fighting madly.
It kicked Saito away then unleashed a series of quakes to cause him to lose his balance and fall into a crevice.
"Saito!" Koji cried as his friend disappeared into the crack.
The hollow lashed out but Koji blocked the attack head on.
"Burn, Kelevandros!" Koji snarled.
His sword ignited in flames and his hilt and crosspiece melted away revealing the ruby red burning handle beneath.
"Boil, Zenpachi!" Rei cried invoking her watery sword.
The two stepped forward, reared back and then lashed out with their blades simultaneously. It was beautiful to watch but painful if one was on the receiving end.
The two streams of fire and water intertwined then stabbed towards the hollow.
The hollow's veins that covered his legs pulsed this time. A thick wall of earth shot out blocking the fierce attack from penetrating and harming him.
"Damn," Koji snapped.
"Hana, look out!" Miho screamed.
The hollow stepped forward and backhanded Hana across the chest sending her crashing into the ground.
"Hana!" Miho screamed.
"Back off!" Cho cried, "Scatter the dust of today, White Wind of Horoki!"
A wave of wind forced the hollow back from his attack.
"Sing, Sakuhana!" Miho cried.
Her blade transformed into the flexible short sword that sang out the song of her soul.
"Extend!" She cried launching her blade.
The blade extended with the flexible metal in between the blade segments allowing it to shoot out and drive into the hollow's shoulder.
"Graaah!" The hollow screamed trying to pull away but the blade was lodged in deeply.
"Hold him there!" Koji cried, "Kelevandros, enflame!"
His blade suddenly brightened as he raised it. He then slammed the flaming blade onto the ground causing a column of fire to shoot out crashing into the pinned hollow.
"Expand!" Rei cried as she raised her own blade.
The watery weapon began to bubble furiously then swelled into a massive balloon-like bubble.
"Unleash torrent!" She cried and the balloon exploded unleashing a shower of watery needles onto the hollow.
The hollow screamed in pain as the sharp projectiles buried into his skin then exploded causing his innards to slowly boil. Berserk with pain the monster began to flail frantically forcing Miho to clasp her sword with both hands and dig her heels in lest she be thrown away like a piece of debris in a tornado.
The hollow angrily jumped forward and kicked Miho away sending her crashing into a tree. Several ribs could be heard cracking as she slumped forward and her head lolled to one side.
Shinn managed to crawl out of the crevice and raise his blade.
"Bastard…my friends…I can never forgive you!" Shinn cried.
He raised his gunblade and immediately it began drawing energy in causing it to extend from being three quarters of Shinn's height to almost double.
"Take this!" He shouted angrily, "Ultimate form, Hikarikami!"
His sword charged with energy and lightning spat out from the blade illuminating the area with a bright shining light. He slashed forward causing a shockwave of energy to shoot out and slash into the hollow's chest.
"Graaaagh!" The hollow screamed as it faded away.
Shinn slumped forward as the black sears began to fade away.
"Took a lot outta me not to use the dark power," Shinn thought.
Despite his troubles his attention immediately shifted to a much more serious matter.
"Hana!" Miho cried as she tried to wake her friend.
She had already set to using her healing arts to mending her wounds but she was simply too weakened from her own wounds.
She managed to hold Sakuhana with a trembling hand over Hana's unconscious form and heal some of the wounds but she was taxing herself to greatly causing her to collapse to one side gasping for air.
Rei hurried over along with Cho and began to move administer basic care to her wounds.
"Rei-san, how bad is it?" Shinn asked weakly.
"She'll live…but her wounds are extensive, it would take at least four weeks to completely heal," Rei replied, "She's definitely not in shape for active duty, contact the 4th division and have them send over a medical team, also have an escort of shinigami as well, if one hollow attacked us here chances are it'll happen again."
"Here," Cho called out, "Use mine,"
He tossed Shinn his test messenger which Shinn caught easily.
"You know the number right?" Cho asked as he bandaged Hana's arm.
Shinn nodded then punches in the contact number on his text messenger.
Currently in Chapter 185-190 or something like that several hollow hybrids, Army of Mask, and immensely powerful hollows have appeared so many of the strongest factions of the shinigami captains have left to investigate the situation."
"Whew, good chapter, lots of talking though! Hopefully this is a better chapter than what I usually write. Please review and as always, criticize my work! I need it!