Chessebelle ran her fingers along the black tar-like walls of the Dangai. The precipice world was something you went through quickly, in and out without a hitch. It was like an elevator, in a way, but instead of moving up or down, it would go through dimensions.
It was odd, how it gave her a feeling of security. She felt safe, away from others, just herself and her thoughts.
"This place gives me the creeps."
And Ikkaku Madarame, of the eleventh division.
"You're annoying me," The white-haired shinigami murmured as they continued through the portal, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Several members of the Gotei 13 had been sent into the Dangai and never came out the other side-the twelfth division was in charge of the investigation and thus Mayuri sent Chessebelle along. The eleventh was only here as a buffer between the scientist and whatever might be attacking shinigami as they passed through the tunnel, much to her chagrin.
It didn't make sense that the shinigami hadn't been found anywhere-Soul Society or otherwise-after entering the Dangai. It was a straight shot, they couldn't possibly have gotten lost. On second thought, if they were a part of the eleventh division, maybe it is possible…
"Hey, twelvie, look at this."
The woman felt her eyes roll to the back of her head, annoyance coursing through her veins as she snapped her head to look at what the gorilla was on about. He was on the opposite side, crouching down and poking at something with the sheath of his zanpakuto.
Flash stepping to his side, the woman bent at the waist to look at the goop he had found. "Never seen this in here," He commented as he stuck the sheath into the purple goop and lifted it, the substance clearly having some sort of viscosity to it as it clung to the sheath for a few moments before slipping off with a sick 'plop.'
"Me neither," Chessebelle agreed curtly, reaching into her shihakusho and producing a handkerchief, picking up the goop and holding it in her hand to inspect it closer. Ikkaku nearly sputtered as she held the thing in front of her face, looking between the tiny woman and the goop on the floor.
"Are you crazy? You don't know what that thing is!" Ikkaku stood upright and looked at the goop with her, despite his words.
"I know. That's why we're going to figure out what it is," She replied flatly, wrapping the goop up and producing a bag from her shihakusho as well. It paid to be prepared in her line of work, putting the goop gingerly into the bag and turning on her heel.
"Let's report what we've found. The kototsu will be sweeping soon."
Ikkaku nodded, moving to follow the twelfth division member when something caught his eye in the dark. There was a glimmer coming from ahead, Chessebelle's foot catching on it before Ikkaku could warn her, a squeak of surprise echoing through the dark tunnel.
Her squeak turned into a scream that made Ikkaku's blood run cold, her skin looking like the moon as it laid sprawled on the floor, crimson oozing from her ankle. Despite faltering for a moment, the eleventh division member rushed to her side and dropped to his knees, hands quick to reach for the wound.
"Stop! Don't touch me!" Chessebelle snarled, her face contorted into an ugly mixture of pain and a seething rage that this brute was going to try to handle her injury before even attempting to find the cause.
Ikkaku was shocked at the blatant disregard for her well-being, watching as she attempted to snap her fingers several times, a flame desperately trying to light from her fingertips. He watched as she gritted her teeth, finally sparking the blue fire kido, bringing it closer to her leg to examine herself. His eyes widened as the kido revealed the angry looking wound, four sharp blades sticking out of the ground and into the area above her ankle, beginning to pulse with a deep purple coloring.
Blood streamed out of her skin and down the shiny metal, the purple slowly growing more vibrant. Chessebelle was just as awestruck as the eleventh division member, taking the sight in as if it was detached from her own body and on display for the world to see. Suddenly, the pain became excruciating, breathing through her teeth harshly as she tried to pull her foot from the trap, the blades only digging in further.
"Fuck, it's draining my reiryoku," The white-haired woman could feel her heart beating faster, the panic starting to course through her veins and begin to cloud her decision making despite her best efforts to stave it off. She pulled her foot a bit harder, dropping back onto her back and screeching in pain while Ikkaku looked on, trying to find the best solution. The blades only seemed to dig in deeper, the pulsing growing even brighter to illuminate their area.
"Call for help unless you plan on cutting my foot off, you oaf." Chessebelle's voice was just as harsh as usual, almost earning a flinch from the fight-loving man. He touched her leg gently, the cold emanating from her skin jarring. He blinked with a realization as she hissed something at him, too absorbed in his thought to fathom what she had even said.
Holding his hand in front of one of the blades, he was careful to position his body next to her and face the palm of his hand away from her foot. "Sting all that which ye deem nuisance, encase them within and burn them from the inside out, Moeru samu-sa!"
The words were foreign on his tongue, unsure whether the incantation was correct, but Ikkaku watched with his brows furrowed in concentration. A ball of strikingly white energy formed in front of his hand before being dispelled, immediately seeking out the metal of the blade and encasing it with a bitter cold ice. Sizzling could suddenly be heard, vapor pluming from the ice tomb as it ate at the metal within itself. Only moments after the kido had been cast, the metal on the trap had been eaten away enough to let go of Chessebelle's skin, a grotesque hole left in its wake.
Shortly after the blade had been eaten out of her skin, Ikkaku grabbed his zanpakuto and brought the butt of the hilt down with enough force to slice the air, shattering the ice and releasing the last of the trap. It was extremely lucky that Kira had done this kido in front of him a few times, having only used kido a handful of times during his time in the eleventh division thus far. He was thankful that it finally came in handy to know at least one spell.
Chessebelle was shockingly quiet as he repeated the process another three times, the adrenaline rush beginning to ebb and instead replaced with an all consuming curiosity.
'How could this kido be eating at this so easily? This trap is more than likely involved with the disappearances of these shinigami… How did none of them attempt to escape?'
Thoughts bounced around in her skull, giving her a headache as he crushed the last of the ice, only the first blade from the trap still somewhat intact on the floor of the Dangai. Chessebelle worked quickly to produce another bag and put the metal into it, looking at it carefully in front of her in the same manner she had with the goop. Ikkaku could hardly believe the nerve this woman had. He wasn't sure if she was a complete idiot or just so detached from reality that she didn't care.
A loud sound began to fill the tunnels, the two shinigami glancing in the opposite direction, the ominous yellow light of the kototsu gleaming towards them.
"Let's go," The twelfth division member moved lithely to stand up, her weight on her good leg, and attempt to shunpo towards the exit of the dangai. Again, that horrible scream she had let out from before echoed through the tunnel, Ikkaku quickly moved to her side and lifted her in a bridal style.
"Let me go! I'm not a doll to be manhandled, you baboon!" She snarled, her normally tired eyes instead alive and sparking with a rage that could be felt coming from her body. If he wasn't mistaken he could feel her spiritual pressure suddenly rising, the eleventh division member debating on whether he should obey her or not. A quick look towards her still bleeding leg was enough for him to make a quick decision.
"Manhandled, huh? After saving your god forsaken life, this is how you're going to repay me? Fine, I'll give you the satisfaction of treating you like a 'baboon.'" It felt more like a challenge than she had intended it, and Ikkaku wouldn't back down from that.
Tossing her over his shoulder instead and wrapping an arm around the back of her knees, the bald man was using his rather poor shunpo to race back to the Soul Society with a screeching, wild-haired mad scientist over his shoulder and a kototsu rushing to exterminate them from its sanctum.