Chapter Twenty Two
The smoke cleared and Rukia, Renji, Rangiku, Kira, Hanataro and Isane were all on the ground, clearly injured but still moving. A man dropped down from the roof above them. He laughed before untying the ribbon around his eyes and dropping it into the wind where it evaporated into the shadows. "Will you look at that... the girl was right." He said. "Had she stayed, these losers would have captured her and that's not what the boss wants."
"You bastard..." Renji wheezed, trying to move but the man stepped on his hand and Renji cried out in pain.
"Stop pretending you have fight left in you." The man raised his sword. "You lose." He swung it down to strike but it was blocked by an older man with long white hair, wearing a long haori. A captain, obviously.
"They are already down." He announced
"Well, well, well, Ukitake Jūshirō." He smirked. "Do you remember me?"
"Yes, I do... Hajime-kun." The man, Hajime apparently, gritted his teeth at him before moving to strike the old captain who blocked the attack.
"Don't call me Hajime-kun, you old hack." He remarked, seething quietly. "Do you remember what you did to me? What Soul Society did to me?"
"Ah... I do." Ukitake sighed. "It's a shame it had to pan out that way. But this is not the way to do thing." Two girls came closer to Ukitake and he turned around. "Yuzu, take Mayaka-chan and go find your sister. If you meet any shinigami on the way, tell them we need relief in the southernmost quadrant. I'll handle this." The older girl nodded before taking the younger one's hand and flashstepping out of there. "Now, you can take out your anger on me. Leave these ones alone. They know nothing."
"Very well then. It's not fun killing a sick old man so I'll make it painless." Hajime charged once more for him.
Just how powerful is Karin chan's zanpakutō? Yuzu thought to herself as she rushed through Seireitei with Mayaka in tow, letting the little girl lead her in the direction that Karin-chan was in.
That wasn't your sister. Kyōgetsu mentioned. I hope you realise that.
I do. Yuzu agreed. But for today, she isn't my sister. She is my enemy. Kyōgetsu was surprised at her tone. If I treat her like my sister, I will be useless. But if I see her as my enemy holding my sister hostage, then I will fight to the death.
She could have sworn she heard Kyōgetsu's smile in her voice. It's been a pleasure watching you grow.
Hitsugaya was now in full throttle as Hyōrinmaru charged for the intruder. Nakamura was now struggling as his lasers could not match up to the rate the ice dragon kept regenerating at. Tōshirō wasn't even moving anymore — he just stood to the side like a man who sent his dogs.
Nakamura hissed, trying to consider his options. Using a bankai wouldn't help... because obviously, as a captain, he would have one too and if his zanpakutō was already this strong without it, he couldn't imagine how strong he was with it. But also, his bankai would simply drain his energy.
Nakamura needed to attack Hitsugaya directly and get past this dragon while he was distracted. He finally found and opening and blew a hole in the dragon's torso before charging for the captain. "You won't stand in our way, you bastard!" Nakamura laughed as he charged for the captain but the young man looked and remained calm before speaking.
"Rokui Hyōketsujin." He said and Nakamura was stopped by an ice flower right beneath him that trapped his legs and froze up his body until he was effectively captured. "I'm sorry, you have every right to be angry..." He heard Hitsugaya say from outside ice. "But you picked the wrong fight to express it."
Out of nowhere, a hell butterfly came over and found the young Captain. "It's about damn time." Hitsugaya sighed before putting on the microphone he kept somewhere in his haori. "Jūbantai taichō, Hitsugaya Tōshirō here."
"Hitsugaya-taichō, are you okay?" The person on the other side of the line asked.
"Ah! I need units by kidō corps. I managed to capture an insurrectionist." He said. "Put me in contact with Matsumoto Rangiku, jūbantai fūkūtaichō."
"Captain, Matsumoto-fūkūtaichō is under medical care." Tōshirō was then overcome by shock at that announcement.
Ukitake was not that old of a man... but he was a sick man. Despite this, he was just about strong enough to do whatever. So when little Hajime attacked him, he knew not to be too hard on him. He was only a child, at least in his eyes. Jūshirō mostly dodged and blocked most of the attacks that came his way.
He already had his shikai out, a contraption that spread about little explosives. Ukitake never understood how the newer zanpakutōs strayed further and further away from traditional mechanics. But it was interesting to see the evolution of a zanpakutō never the less.
"Stop patronising me." Hajime hissed as he waved his weapon, emitting more explosives in his direction but Jūshirō simply flashstepped out of the way.
"Why are you doing this?" Ukitake asked
"Does it matter? Everyone in this forsaken place can go to hell." Hajime huffed.
"Are you working with Aizen?"
"So what if I am?" He laughed. "You'll never stop us. You'll never stop him and this place will cease to exist once and for all. No more lies, no more cheats... no more corruption."
Ukitake sighed. "Soul Society is far from perfect... but a world without it would be a horrid idea. Why not help facilitate change than bring down an entire system?"
"Change? The system is working as intended. You can't change something that is working just fine." He laughed. "Instead, it needs to be taken out completely."
He charged for Ukitake once more, swinging his weapon but the captain parrayed.
Karin's body moved by the city walls after taking down a city guard and whatever that weak division was. She was planting something in the ground by the walls. "Angetsu." The girl perked up and turned around, looking at Yuzu with the coldest stare. That was the easiest way Yuzu could remember... that was not Karin. Because even on her darkest days, she would never look at her twin sister with such disdain. "Oh, it's you again." She stood up. "Scram, I have no interest in fighting you. You are not even worth my strength." She tried to get away but Yuzu fired a kidō spell at her without incantation and Karin turned to block it. "Huh... Hadō 13 without incantation. She's been practicing."
Yuzu flashstepped and Karin moved raising her katana but missed the direction Yuzu was aiming in and Yuzu ended up behind her, holding the blade to her neck. Karin looked shocked by the fact that she was taken off guard by her and she looked at the blade. It wasn't a regular blade... it was a tantō which was silver and gold. "... But... how?" She turned to strike her but Yuzu jumped backwards.
She raised the dagger in her direction. "You, the spirit inhabiting my sister's body. Leave before I force you to."
Now Karin was just annoyed and moved to strike again but Yuzu flashstepped out of the way and narrowly kicked her. Karin raised her hand to block it but Yuzu raised her free leg into another kick. Karin blocked it with her wrist but the impact stung from the burst of reiatsu she released. She was forced a few paces backwards by the wave but managed to stay on her feet. Before she could even recover, Yuzu was charging at her and kicked her in the stomach and she was flew backwards into the ground. She rolled over a couple of times before landing in a zenkutsu stance.
"Mayaka-chan. Dig out what she was trying to plant and take it back to the captains." Yuzu said and the little girl nodded before getting to work
"You are putting her in danger." Karin called out
She's a neutraliser... Karin mentioned with an eyeroll
"She's a neutraliser." Yuzu reminded her. Angetsu hissed in annoyance. Both these girls vexed them in a way they couldn't explain.
"I will not repeat myself. Leave before I force you to." Yuzu said as she took slow steps towards her. "I am already faster than you. On top of that, you are tired and you have overworked her body. You will lose."
She's not joking... Karin snickered gleefully from inside.
"You took a few hours practicing and now you think you're better. Fantastic. Now I won't have to feel bad about destroying you." Karin spat before turning her sword with a flick of her wrist. "Henkō, Angetsu." The blade disappeared right at the hilt and she swung in Yuzu's direction. She was certain it would hit but to her shock, Yuzu simply leaned to the side where she did not swing and the attack sailed past her. "...It... it can't be."
"Shinjitsu o subete akiraka ni suru, Kyōgetsu." Yuzu chanted and a burst of reiatsu was released from her as her blades changed into two tessen. Karin watched from deep inside her body and for the first time since she knew her zanpakutō spirit, she could see the fear that was present in them. "It's over, Angetsu."
Hitsugaya was getting closer and closer to where he felt the most reiatsu being emitted in waves. That must have been where she was. As he used shunpō through the air, he stopped when he found Mashiro floating above the walls of the city, looking down. Hitsugaya stopped to follow her gaze and to his surprise, Karin was there, fighting... but obviously struggling. Her opponent was even more of a shock to him.
"Impressive, isn't it?" He looked up at Mashiro. "Both of them, that is."
Hitsugaya turned back and watched as Yuzu flipped through the air before charging at Karin. He could see Karin swing her weapons furiously but he obviously couldn't tell what direction she was moving in. It seemed that Yuzu could as she swerved through the air and landed short of Karin before jumping back into the air then swung her tessen downwards, releasing what appeared to be hadō 33.
"Amazing. How did she obtain her shikai so quickly?" Hitsugaya marveled at her
"She's a Kurosaki. You don't question that family of anything." Mashiro said. "Thanks for the note earlier." Hitsugaya thought back to the scroll he tossed in the alleyway earlier. He was glad she found it before someone else. He was skeptical of being watched.
"Ah... thanks for sneaking the box back." Hitsugaya nodded
"It was easy. Kensei is forgetful." She said.
"You used to be his vice captain?" He asked
"Yes. It's a good thing Yuzu showed up. You were right... but Angetsu was a step ahead. She used another ryoka as a decoy to face your squad."
Hitsugaya sighed. "I should've known."
"You can't be correct about everything, sadly." She mentioned and they grew silent add they watched Karin retract her blades and attack Yuzu openly now without any tricks. It appeared she was getting desparate.
"Maybe we should step in..." Hitsugaya thought and Mashiro shook her head
"We need Karin to be effectively drained if we want the sonshō seal to work." Mashiro said.
"But Yuzu just attained her shikai and she's executing spells higher than her current training level." Hitsugaya said. "At this rate, she'll drain herself out."
"But she's not using her own reiatsu." Mashiro pointed out. "She's merely acting as a vessel." Hitsugaya wasa but confused. "I'm sure you had a science class while at the Shinō Academy... the potato in sugar water and the potato in clean water?"
"Vaguely..." Hitsugaya thought. "The potato got bigger in the clean water and thinner in the sugar water."
"Yuzu-chan is the potato in this case." She explained. "Her zanpakuto allows her to use the reishi to pass through her, moving in and out as she uses her powers. She's like a regulator of sorts. The bursts of reiatsu are not her own but the one she has absorbed from the system before passing out but in the form of kidō."
"But there should be a limit." Hitsugaya stated
"And we'll be there to help if that happens." She said. "This a fight between twin spirits. The antagonism Angetsu has for Yuzu's zanpakutō is obvious. I don't doubt that this could get messy... but we need to bide our time."
Jūshirō finally decided that it was enough and that he should stop toying with him. "Hadō 32: Ōkasen." He chanted, realising a wide arc of yellow energy at his opponent who dodged it but Ukitake quickly used a bakudō spell to restrain him. "Bakudō 9: Geki." He entrapped him in a glare of red light.
He heard rapid, tiny footsteps in the distance and turned just as Mayaka appeared. "Ah! Mayaka-chan!" Jūshirō smiled at the small girl who approached him with a metallic contraption in her hands. "Huh? What is that?" She handed it to him and he gasped when dawned on him. "Why did you pick this up?" He dropped it. Mayaka tried to sign to him that it was safe. "Sorry Maya-chan... I don't understand sign language."
Mayaka frowned, tapping her foot before belly flopping to the ground and writing. "I'm a neutrality quicy so my reiatsu cancelled the one in it. It feels like a pressure bomb." Jūshirō read after her as she wrote in the sand. "It is a pressure bomb. Correct. Where did you find it?"
Mayaka wrote again. "Karin nee-chan planted this one along the walls of the city."
Jūshirō sighed, realising that Tōshirō was right. They were trying to take down all the defences of Seireitei. "You can detect things using reishi, correct?" Mayaka nodded. "Come with me! We need to find the others around the city walls." Before he could move, Mayaka tugged on his haori before pointing at Hajime. "Oh... right." Ukitake summoned the nearby hell butterfly.
Fighting Karin was harder than she imagined... but she was making more progress than she expected. Yuzu was still new to this zanpakutō thing so it wasn't always easy to spot the illusions and attacks she had planned. But now, Karin had given up on using hokai suru because it obviously wasn't working on her.
They clashed swords, or at least, the blade of her nodachi hit either one of the tessen or the chain connecting the two fans. Yuzu wrapped the chain around her wrist and flipped get over but Karin managed to keep her balance before landing a kick to her stomach. Yuzu tumbled backwards a bit before releasing a bakudō spell.
"Enough!" Karin yelled before cutting through the ropes. She jumped into the air and Yuzu followed.
"Getsuga-tenshō!" They declared in unison, swinging their weapons at each other to create a wave of silver light and a wave of black that cut through each other at a stalemate.
Both simply stared at each other, Karin breathing heavily. Yuzu was also somewhat tired but she could see the exhaustion on her sister's face. "Do you want to continue?" Yuzu asked, gripping onto her warfans tighter.
"Do I look like I'm going to lose to you?" Karin glared at her
"Very well..." Yuzu disappeared and before Karin could act, she was behind her. "You're slow!" She wrapped the chain around her neck.
"Hokai-suru." The blades from her sword disappeared once more and instead of attacking, they grabbed at Yuzu's leg before pulling the two sisters back to the ground. Karin turned and kicked Yuzu in the shoulder but Yuzu released her and pulled herself out of its clutches.
The shadow returned to Karin's sword. "Kage no tsume." Karin declared and the shadows in the night casted by the moon began to move. Yuzu looked around, knowing that these were not illusions. She was now controlling the reishi of the shadows to do her bidding. They reached out to Yuzu try and attack and Yuzu sliced through them.
Eventually, more and more came and entrapped her, holding her by each limb. "Finally! You're such a fucking pain to deal with." Karin raised her sword but stopped when the limbs began to glow and be forced up her arms and limbs.
Don't force yourself too much. Kyōgetsu warned but Yuzu hardly listened.
"You can't attack me with my own weapon!" Yuzu declared before stabbing her tessen the ground. "Modified hadō 11: dimensional lightning!" The ground glowed yellow and Karin tried to jump and get away but it traveled through the air as well, striking her sister.
It hurt her to hear Karin scream but she had to do it. Karin was hit and fell to the ground. Yuzu knelt down, breathing heavily. Her eyes were also unable to stay steady. I overdid it...
You absorbed negative energy. Kyōgetsu explained. You may see illusions and tricks... but Karin's zanpakutō is your polar opposite. You use reishi as a building block to attacks but when she uses it, she alters it. So what you just absorbed and released is affecting your vessel negatively.
"... good to know..." Yuzu panted as she held the ground, trying to stabilise herself. It's over. She tried telling herself but was shocked when Karin got back on her feet. She too was injured but not down or out.
"You really think I'm going to let you win, Kyōgetsu?" Karin scoffed as she trudged over. "You will never win. I will always be better than you."
I need to move. Yuzu huffed but she couldn't move her knees. I can't move. I can't move.
"Bakudō 61: Rikujōkōrō." Karin was caught offguard as she was caught by six beams of light, holding her hostage. Yuzu turned to see Hitsugaya, looking a little singed and shredded, probably from a previous fight with someone. "Good job, Yuzu." Hitsugaya said before picking her up. "We'll take it from here."
"Let me go, you shithead." Karin hissed as she wiggled around. "It's nice to see you have a new favourite twin but let me the fuck out—"
"Angetsu." Hitsugaya said, causing the spirit inhabiting her body to stop. "It's over."
"I'm sorry, you two." Mashiro said. "If you don't want to watch, I totally understand." She pulled off her gloves, revealing her hands with two seals on the palms. The reiatsu from that act alone was insane and almost blew the captain and the young girl away.
Karin's eyes widened in fear and she began to tremble. "Do... don't touch me! Please! I'm begging you."
Mashiro said nothing as she placed the palm of her hand on top on the back of shoulder and in the middle of her chest: "Soul king, creator of all..."
"Please... please don't..." Karin was in tears now. "I'm begging you, please!"
"Imparting wisdom, imparting strength, impart sorrow, imparting joy..." A green light glowed from her hands. Karin continued to shake her head in fear, begging and pleading for her to stop. "Let it be known that today and from that onwards, she will be cursed. Cursed to walk the land with the weight of an unknown force on her back for the rest of her days. Her body will be a vessel to evils unknown to her. But let it be known, that you will impart the power to combat it."
"Stop! It burns! Please!" Karin's screams were getting louder as the seal burned through her clothing around the areas she touched and even the skin.
"This seal will be the sign of the cursed but the sign of mercy on those who see the hand of it. Those who see this sign shall tremble and fall in fear. The cursed shall gain power and the evil will fade into a whisper." Mashiro stopped her chanting before holding onto the top of her head. "But first, she shall see hell."
A fire surround them and Hitsugaya had to jump back with Yuzu still on her back. "What are you doing?" Yuzu yelled.
"Calm down, she knows what she is doing." Hitsugaya claimed even though the screams were just as unnerving to him. He couldn't imagine how traumatic it must've been for her.
"She's hurting her." Yuzu claimed.
"She knows what she is doing. Trust her." Hitsugaya said as they watched the fire engulf the both of them, before a light emitted into the sky. The screaming ceased and the light stopped before the whole world faded to black. The two appeared once more but Karin was no longer bounded. She fell to the floor unconscious and Mashiro stood before her. Her hair was green again but she turned around and faced the two, blood dripping from her mouth and the seals on the palms of her hands. "Call... the fourth." She grinned before falling to the ground.
A/N: This brings us to the end of the first arc of the story :D We are officially introduced to Kyōgetsu (Mirror Moon), a zanpakutō from the Shiba family clan. For now, we will refer to it as a kidō type zanpakutō and its basic power is the ability to form any basic kidō spell without incantation or significant reiatsu drain by using surrounding reishi. The wielder technically does not need to have practiced the spell on their own beforehand as Kyōgetsu extends knowledge of kidō spells to her wielder. The zanpakutō has to do with the control and flow of reiatsu, reiryōku and reishi through systems. Moreover, the wielder gains an ability to see past any illusions as illusions are just alterations of spirit particles.