Part 3. The Real Reaper.
- What?!!! Shinigami? You? – Ragna started laughing uncontrollably at the whole neighborhood, surprising both Rukia and the Hollows with his reaction.
- What's funny, idiot?! I'm a shinigami! And the lieutenant! Does the fact that I see you, unlike other people, mean anything to you? - Rukia said with flustration, ready to strangle the person she was just going to help out of anger.
- Sorry, I haven't laughed like that in a long time! – Bloodedge said, wiping away a tear. When suddenly, having calmed down, he made an absolutely serious face. – And now seriously: are you really sure that this nickname suits you?
- It's not a nickname, it's a title. - Rukia said with concern in her voice, not expecting him to become so serious.
- The place where I came from, such nicknames were awarded to people whose faces were on wanted posters. I apologize for my laugh, but I advise you not to interfere in my fight. – said Ragna and pushing the girl aside, he went to meet one of the Hollows, putting his Aramasa on his shoulder. – Well, who wants to go to the next world first?
One of the creatures jumped on Ragna at full speed, hoping to bite off his head.
- Let's see what you taste like! - Hollow hissed, opening his mouth.
Lowering the sword, Ragna changed its position in his hand and rapidly raised it up.
- Dead Spike! – with this phrase, energy was formed from under the sword and a huge head of a Black Beast burst out of the ground. With a growl, the head that came out of the ground opened its mouth and the Hollow, not having time to change the direction of its jump, lost its head, which disappeared along with the evaporating head.
Sheathing his sword, Ragna turned to the other Hollows.
- Well, who wants to be next? Okay, then let's get started!
The very first arriving Hollow spreads his wings and, flying high, begins to mock the Grim Reaper:
- You're just a human! I don't think you are…Gaaah!- he doesn't have time to finish the sentence, as Rukia appears behind him and hits him with a vertical sword hit.
- Okay, maybe I jumped to conclusions. Inferno Divider! – jumping up, Ragna grabbed the sword with his right hand and, spreading the Azure energy all over the sword, flew up sharply. – How about this? – turning over in the air and putting the sword back in the scabbard, Bloodedge hit the Hollow with his free hand, continuing his flight. – Go to hell! – turning around again, Ragna forms a purple flame on his leg and hits the Hollow, sending him back to earth.
Meanwhile, Rukia quickly moves to the third Hollow and hits him with a sword, but suddenly the Hollow disappears from the girl's field of view.
«What..?!» a thought flew through shinigami's head, after which she gets a strong blow in the back, but quickly grouped Rukia gets back to her feet with a heavy weight on her back. «Damn, how can he move so fast?»
Hollow himself doesn't let the girl relax and goes on the attack again, but Rukia decides to use the Shikai of her zampakto.
- Dance, Sode no Shirayuki! – and the sword in her hands begins to change its shape. The whole sword becomes crystal white, the sword guard begins to transform into something like a snowflake, and a long snow-white ribbon, like the sword itself, forms at the end of the hilt. After releasing a large amount of reiatsu, the asphalt under Rukia's feet began to freeze.
Ragna, who had successfully continued to knock his whole life out of the Hollow, stopped for a moment, feeling the icy gusts of wind. Looking back, he saw a new sword in the hands of a small shinigami, who lowered her blade down to the ground.
Hollow jumped straight at Rukia, ready to tear her to pieces. That was what she needed. Jumping to meet the enemy, she swings her sword and a circle forms around them. Dodging the blow, she says:
- The First Dance, White Moon! – once in the limit of the glowing area, the Hollow finds itself in the middle of the formed ice, which freezes it, forming a huge column stretching into the sky, after which it falls apart, taking her opponent with it.
- Not bad, not bad. - Ragna said, approaching the girl. – But it could have been better. You spend too much power on such a huge column of ice. Useless energy consumption.
- You speak as if you know how to use an ice-type zampakto. - Rukia said resentfully.
- I have never used swords with the type of «ice», but I know one guy who really ruffled my nerves with one such sword. - Ragna said seriously.
«Wait! I seem to have forgotten about something important… boy!» Turning sharply towards the house, Ragna saw the outline of the creature's back.
- You bastard! – jumping over the fence, Ragna grabs a sword in the air. Pushing it forward, he presses against it. – Belial Edge! – and landing, inflicts a deep cut in his back, while sticking a sword in the creature's back.
Roaring in pain, the Hollow hits the wall three times with all his might and throws the Grim Reaper off his back.
- Damn... - Ragna croaked, spitting blood out of his mouth.
Rukia jumps in to help Ragna. Dodging several quick attacks, she jumps behind his back and sticks her sword into the wound, starting to freeze the Hollow from the inside. Having completely frozen the monster, shinigami pulls out the sword, provoking its destruction.
- Kid, are you okay? - Ragna shouted, getting to his feet.
A child jumps out of the house and approaches the Grim Reaper.
- Is it over?
- Yes, almost, - said Rukia and going up to the boy, pulls out a sword.
Ragna was about to take the boy behind his back for protection, but Rukia calms him down:
- I'm going to perform a funeral or Konso, after which, you'll be taken to a safer place. - Rukia says, showing the glowing tip on the hilt of the sword.
- But my brother and sister. What will happen to them?
- This guy hopes that his brother and sister are okay. He's unlikely to agree to go where you're sending him. - Ragna explained calmly.
After looking around, Rukia turns back to them.
- I was already here a few weeks ago. And used Konso on three souls: one old man and two children.
After these words, the boy cheer up.
- When I return to the Society of Souls, stay where you appear. I'll come and help you find them. - Shinigami said, smiling at Tatsuya with a sincere smile.
Finally, using Konso on the boy, he, disappearing, spoke to Ragna:
- Thank you Ragna-san for not leaving me alone! I will definitely help you with something! - And almost disappearing, he waved to him, which Ragna himself did in response.
When the reiatsu particles completely disappeared, Ragna felt calm in his soul. Again.
- You didn't lie to him, did you?
- I don't lie about such things. - Rukia said seriously again.
After a short silence, she asks:
- Why did you help me destroy the Hollows? And who are you? Where did you come from?
- So that's what you call them here? - Ragna chuckled. – I destroyed them because I wanted to. There is no reason for this. And as for the name, my name is Ragna. My story is too long to tell standing in the middle of the street.
After thinking a little, Rukia realized that it was better to go to a place where they could relax and learn more about who this person was.
- I know one place where we can relax and talk in a calm atmosphere. And if you try to escape or refuse, I'll stop you.
- Do you think you have a chance to do it? Tch, stupid gnome. - Ragna chuckled. – I don't even know where I am anyway. I think I could use some help.
- I'm not a gnome! I'm a lieutenant! I am one of the best shinigami of my squad!
- Yes, yes, keep saying that. Maybe I'll believe it. – said Ragna, who had already started to go somewhere.
- Do you even know where to go? - Rukia said, walking forward. – Follow me.
~An hour later~
There was very little left to their destination, but they walked almost the whole way in silence. During this time, Rukia was able to study Ragna better. His sword, as she thought, was of mechanical origin. The red jacket had two steel plates on each sleeve. There were two gold buckles on the chest of the jacket, which may have controlled the size of the jacket, and there were two belts folded crosswise on the back. The shoes he wore also had steel plates on the toes. The hands were covered with black gloves, on the back of which there was a device with a steel outline on which there were unknown symbols. He had white spiky hair, and both of his eyes had different colors: the right eye was red, and the left eye was green.
- We're here. - Rukia said, stopping near a small shop that, judging by the inscriptions, was a pastry shop.
- I take it, this is a secret base?
- You could say that.
When she reached the store's doors, she opened them and went inside, which Ragna did.
Inside, everything was quite normal: there were shelves in the room, on which there were confectionery products, and at the end there was a cash register. A man in dark green clothes came out of the back door, and a dark raincoat was thrown over him. His disheveled hair and face were covered by a striped white and green hat.
- Oh, Kuchiki-san! I didn't expect to see you here today! – said the man who came out unexpectedly loudly and joyfully – Are you in the world of the Living with another mission? And Ichigo knows…
- I'm not here to chat! And yes, I was here because of the mission. But unforeseen circumstances appeared. And one of them is him. - Rukia said, pointing at Ragna. – This man in the hat is called Urahara Kisuke.
- Hmm, interesting. – said Urahara, looking at the Grim Reaper – The level of your reiatsu is comparable to the level of a lieutenant. But something tells me that you're hiding your real strength.
Suddenly, he grabs Ragna's right hand and starts examining her. Bloodedge pulls it away abruptly.
- If you value your life, it's better not to touch me! - Ragna growled threateningly at Urahare.
- I'm sorry! Urahara said, jumping back. – But my theory turned out to be correct! This hand is quite interesting! She radiates a completely different reiatsu than you have. As if… She's alive.
Ragna could only look at this man with shock. Who is he? How did he know that the Azure Grimoire wasn't his hand? Could it be that the seitr limiters are damaged?
- Don't be afraid: everything is fine with these devices on your hands. They're in working order, as far as I can tell.
With a sigh of relief, Ragna continued to look with disbelief at the man in the hat.
- Okay, sit down and I'll listen to you.
Following Tessai, Urahara's assistant, Ragna and Rukia found themselves in a small room with a round table in the middle. Taking off his shoes and placing his Aramasa against the wall, Ragna sat down at the table with Rukia, soon receiving a cup of tea. Ragna looked into the tea with disbelief, but after drinking a little, he realized that everything was fine with him.
Soon Urahara himself comes and starts listening to Rukia's story. She tells how she came to the task, and then, after it was over, she felt a strong surge of reiatsu and, hurrying to the place, noticed Ragna walking down the street. And so, following him, he comes across the spirit and the Hollows, and after defeating them, she offered to come here already.
- I knew from the very beginning that I was being followed. And you've been following me all day?
- Of course! I didn't know what kind of danger you could pose to others.
- And so Kuchiki-san, let's listen to our guest now. - Urahara said, interrupting them both.
- The guest has a name. I'm Ragna. And which version do you want to listen to: short or long with all the explanations that follow? - Ragna replied sarcastically.
- We have the whole night ahead of us, so I wouldn't refuse the second option. Do you mind? - Urahara asked Rukia.
- No, it's all right.
- Okay, then we'll start…
~ Four hours later~
Ragna explained everything at length, but in detail. He explained that he was not from this world and not even from this time. He talked about the Cauldrons that allow you to penetrate the Boundary, about how people tried to reach the power of God with their help, and how this attempt failed, which led to the summoning of the Black Beast. About the time when the Black Beast almost destroyed the world, and how Six Heroes appeared, who destroyed the monster. Then Ragna told about the appearance of NOL – an organization that was supposed to protect the world from new incidents, but which, in fact, took almost the whole world hostage. About how, as a result, the world was to be destroyed again, but with the help of the power of the True Azure, it was stopped.
Ragna also told a little about himself, omitting some facts. He told how he lived in the church and how one day he lost those who were dear to him. He trained for a long time in using the Azure Grimoire that he received after losing his arm, and when he became old enough and strong enough, his teacher gave him a jacket and a sword that saved his life more than once. He even told about his lonely rebellion, and about the reward for his head for destroying the Cauldrons. And he also told about the reasons for leaving his world.
After listening to a rather long story, Rukia and Urahara still had some questions.
- And what exactly can this Azure do? How powerful is she? - Urahara asked curiously.
- To put it briefly: whatever you wish, she will fulfill any of your wishes. With its help, you can even create and destroy worlds. - Ragna replied. But seeing that Urahara wanted to say something else, he added. – But it is extremely difficult to get to it: it is located in the depths of the Boundary. There are, of course, ways to get to it, but you will have to spend a lot of time and effort to do it.
- How does your Azure Grimoire differ from the True Azure? - Rukia asked already.
- My Grimoire has only a fraction of the power of True Azure, and the rest of it is melted from the remains of a Black Beast. – Ragna paused and, taking a deep breath, continued. – He can connect directly to the Boundary and draw strength from there, but if I lose control of him, he can turn me into a new Black Beast.
After the last sentence, the atmosphere in the room became extremely tense and realizing that he had stirred up too much, he added:
- The Grimoire has already tried to do this, but I managed to take full control of it, and after I got here, I don't feel any harmful influence on me. Perhaps it's because of the influence of the True Azure…
- Your story was quite entertaining, and it's unlikely that you composed it on the way here. I believe you. - Urahara said.
- Thank you. But I'm interested: what should I do? I mean, I'm invisible to other people! I don't want it to be like this! I want to enjoy a quiet life for once.
- I think I can solve your problem, but you will have to wait a little. But this is, of course, for a service.
Thanking Urahara again, Ragna began to pray that this service wasb't something weird.
Meanwhile, Rukia wasn't going anywhere. Ragna broke the silence first.
- Um, don't you have to go back to the Society of Souls or whatever you call it here?
- A little later. I'll have to come back here later anyway, because I haven't done all the research yet.
- Research? Research of what? The Grim Reaper asked with incomprehension.
- Recently, there have been too many Hollows in this city. Usually abnormally large number of Hollows appear in places with a high content of reiatsu. But now Hollows can appear anywhere, although I haven't observed places with anomalies. I was sent here because I have been here more than once and I know the area well…
- …But you have no idea how to use your powers properly. - Ragna interrupted her.
- I know how to use my zampakto! If I didn't know how to use it, I wouldn't be able to use my Shikai! - Rukia said rudely and angrily.
- Then let's find out which one of us is right! If I don't use all my strength to defeat you, I'll training you!
- And if I win, you will do everything I tell you for a week! - Rukia said with enthusiasm, remembering how every time she argued like that with Ichigo, she won and he had to fulfill all her wishes.
- Deal! Ragna said. – Only where will we check?
- Follow me.
~Under Urahara's store~
- Whoa! Is there a whole room here?!
- Yes. Urahara uses it to train and open the Senkaimon Gate.
- I don't know what you're talking about! Explain it to me later.
And with these words, Ragna takes out his Aramasa and arranging it in his left hand stands up in a stance. Rukia follows Ragna's example, and also gets into a fighting stance, freeing her sword.
- It's time to start!