AN: Sorry that this chapter was late. I got busy with my schoolwork. I hope you guys enjoy the next chapter.
Chapter 6: Shrieker
Ichigo and Yang were in his sisters' room, putting Karin back in bed. Ichigo had laid her down and was pulling the covers over her. The stress had finally gotten to her, and she was fast asleep, tears still sitting in her eyes. Once she was settled, Ichigo pat her head affectionately.
"Don't worry, Karin," he said quietly. "We'll help that boy. I promise."
"Is she doing OK?" asked Yang.
"Yeah, I think she's fine now. Or at least she will be when we're finished."
"So she can see ghosts, too, huh? It looked like it was pretty hard on her."
"I haven't seen her like this in a while. How many years has it been since I last saw Karin cry?" He thought out loud. Yang looked at him sadly. "Before our mom died, Karin was a crybaby, just like Yuzu." Yang looked surprised. "After Mom died, Yuzu tried to fill in for our mom, and took over the housekeeping. Karin wasn't good at much of anything. She stopped crying altogether so she wouldn't worry the rest of us. Even when she got in trouble, or the time she broke her leg, she never cried. If she's crying now, she must truly be in pain."
"Ichigo," Yang said sadly.
"You had a little sister, too, right?" Ichigo asked. "You said her name is Ruby?"
"That's right," Yang said. "She's two years younger than me. Our mom died, too. When we were really little. I was six at the time." It was Ichigo's turn to look surprised. "After that happened, our dad just kind of shut down. It was almost like he gave up. So I had to step up and take care of her. She was torn up about it, too. I don't think she ever really got over it. She was always really childish for her age, and socially awkward. Super obsessed with weapons. That made it a little hard for her to meet people. So I was so proud of her when she made it to Beacon and started making friends. But now…" she trailed off, looking down at the floor sadly. She felt Ichigo's hand touch her shoulder. She looked up at him, and he was looking at her concerned.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to remind you about your situation."
"It's fine," she said, giving him a small smile. "I like remembering Ruby. We had a great life all things considered. Thank you. I'll be fine." He nodded.
"We have to get going," he said. "We promised we'd come right back."
"Let's go."
"If you're really a Soul Reaper, why don't you drop the meat suit and fight me for real?" The Hollow demanded. Rukia and Pyrrha were standing their ground, doing their best to stay alive against the Hollow.
"This isn't good," Rukia said. "My powers haven't recovered yet. My Kido has no effect on him."
"I take it you aren't very good at hand-to-hand combat?" Pyrrha asked her. Rukia shook her head.
"What about you?" she asked.
"Not as good as I am with a weapon, sadly."
"Great."
"Aw, how cute," The Hollow said mockingly. "You're trying to make a plan. Not that it matters. You're dead either way!" He charged at them, his fist raised. Rukia rolled out the way, while Pyrrha jumped straight up. She delivered a kick to the Hollow's face, causing it to stagger backwards. It quickly recovered, and charged at Pyrrha again. She was still in midair, and thus couldn't dodge, so she instead raised her arms to defend herself. The Hollow threw another punch, hitting Pyrrha's raised arms. The punch carried enough force to throw her back several feet. She landed on the ground hard, but managed to use her momentum to roll backwards onto her feet.
Damn, she thought. I forgot I don't have any Aura anymore. This might be harder than I thought. She charged at the Hollow, jumping towards him once she was a few feet away, her fist cocked back. She threw a punch at the Hollow's mask, only to be shocked when the Hollow seemingly disappeared. She then let out a cry of pain when something struck her back, sending her flying.
"Pyrrha!" Rukia shouted. The Hollow then appeared right in front of her, punching her in the stomach. The impact sent her flying. She slammed into a wall holding up an elevated park than ran alongside the street they were fighting on. She fell to the ground unconscious.
"Rukia!" Pyrrha shouted in concern. The momentary distraction was all the Hollow needed. He quickly ran up to Pyrrha, grabbing her by the throat and lifting her up into the air.
"I don't know what you thought you were doing," the Hollow said, "but this should teach you not to mess with us Hollows." He began to squeeze harder, choking Pyrrha. She struggled for several seconds, feeling the world around her beginning to fade. She was about to lose consciousness, when a fist came flying out of nowhere, hitting the Hollow in the mask and sending him flying. The impact caused him to drop Pyrrha. She landed on her feet, gasping for breath. She looked up at her savior, and was surprised to see Chad. He was looking down at his fist, clearly surprised that his punch actually connected with something.
"Hey," he said. "I hit something. All right."
"Chad?" Pyrrha asked. "But how did-?"
"Pyrrha!" Blake called, running up to her. "Are you OK?"
"Blake! I'm fine. Good to see you."
"You too." Blake noticed Rukia lying on the ground. "What happened to Rukia?"
"She's unconscious. We can help her later. How did Chad hit that Hollow? Can he see spirits?" She looked over to him, and saw Chad punching at thin air over and over. "I guess not."
"Yasu," Blake said. "He's over there." She pointed at the Hollow, who was getting up from Chad's punch. Chad walked towards it.
"Whew, it was just a lucky hit," the Hollow said, not noticing Chad getting closer. "For a second there I thought he could see me." His thoughts were interrupted when Chad hit him again, sending him flying again, this time leaving a small crater in the pavement.
"Alright," Chad said. "I got him again."
"Wow," Pyrrha said, at a loss for words.
He won't raise a hand to defend himself, but he's fearless in defending others, Blake thought. I think I'm finally starting to understand you, Yasutora Sado.
"Damn you!" The Hollow bellowed, before shooting straight up into the air. Blake and Pyrrha looked on in shock as the bat wings sticking out of his wrists unfolded, allowing him to fly. The Hollow started laughing maniacally.
"Let's see you try and punch me now, you clueless human toad!" He yelled. "You'll never even see me coming!"
"Chad, he's above you!" Pyrrha said.
"Oh hey there, new girl," Chad said, turning around to look at her. "Pyrrha, right? Are you telling me you can see ghosts, too?" He looked down and saw Rukia. "And is she OK?"
"There's no time to explain, Yasu," Blake said. "You have to move before he strikes."
"Where is he?" Chad asked, putting his hand on a telephone pole.
"Huh?" They both asked.
"When he charges, you just tell me where he is."
"What are you going to do?" Blake asked. He wrapped both of his hands around the telephone pole.
"When you have a fly, you use a flyswatter," he said, and began pulling.
"Is he doing what I think he's doing?" Pyrrha asked.
"Looks like it," Blake answered. Neither girl knew just what to make of this.
The Hollow was still floating in midair, chuckling to himself.
"So many ways I can attack him," he said. "Shall I swoop in low like a falcon, or divebomb straight down onto his head and tear his- huh?"
With a roar, Chad ripped the telephone pole out of the ground and was now wielding it as a weapon.
"What the hell?!" The Hollow exclaimed.
"Just help me get a bead on him," Chad said to Blake.
"He's dead ahead!" Blake said. "Hit him now!" The Hollow let out a terrified scream as Chad slammed the telephone pole down, hitting the Hollow dead center in his face. The impact sent him into the pavement, causing another crater to form. The impact broke the pole clean in half. The Hollow leaped backwards out of the crater, trying to create some distance between himself and Chad. Blake immediately jumped on Chad's back, and pointed her finger right at the Hollow for Chad to see.
"He's right there!" She exclaimed. Following her directions, Chad charged at the Hollow, raising his fist again. The Hollow was still disoriented from having a telephone pole slammed into his face, so it couldn't dodge as Chad's fist slammed into it. It staggered backwards.
"There! He's still right in front of you!" Blake yelled, still pointing at the Hollow from her perch on Chad's back. Chad took a step forward and delivered a solid punch to the Hollow's stomach, making it double over in pain. "He's hunched forward!" Blake yelled. Chad delivered an uppercut to the Hollow's jaw, knocking it to the ground. It was lying there, clearly in pain. Blake got off Chad's back, and was just glaring at it, while Pyrrha walked up to join them.
"You're done," Blake said to the Hollow. "There's another Soul Reaper on his way here to finish you off."
"You bastards," The Hollow groaned. "If you thought I would go down that easily, you're sorely mistaken!" Suddenly, the three of them were pinned to the ground by small creatures. They had four legs and large, bulbous heads. All three of them each had an arm wrenched behind their backs, and were being held in place by several of these weird creatures.
"Ha!" The Hollow laughed. The girls were starting to panic, struggling as hard as they could against the creatures pinning them. Chad was unmoving. "The shoe's on the other foot now! You shouldn't have assumed that a couple of humans could fight the likes of me! Now which one of you meat socks to eat first? I think I'll leave the tasty Soul Reaper over there for last." Chad let out a roar, and stood up quickly, throwing his arms up in the air. The sudden movement caused the small creatures to fly off his body, freeing him. "What's going on?!" The Hollow was astounded. "You're the craziest human I've ever seen! You can't even see me, and yet you think you can beat me with a little bit of muscle power? I'm gonna enjoy eating you!"
"Yasu, he's at 3 o'clock!" Blake yelled, still pinned to the ground. Chad threw another punch in the direction she indicated, but the Hollow managed to dodge at the last second.
"Damn, he almost connected again," the Hollow said, staring at Chad, who was throwing punches at thin air again. "He has pretty good instincts."
"Over here, Chad!" Pyrrha called to him. "Kick the air right above us!" He did just that, knocking the weird creatures off of them. The Hollow took off into the air, much higher than before. The girls watched as the creatures quickly scattered, leaving the area. Blake looked over at Chad, who was punching the air yet again.
"Yasu, he's not there!" she said. "He's up in the air again!"
"Oh," he said simply.
"I think I have a plan," Pyrrha said.
"Hey, Pyrrha," Chad said. "If you ask me, there are some problems with this plan." He was currently standing in the middle of the street. Blake was clinging to Chad's back again, and Pyrrha was perched in a crouching stance on his arm. The Hollow was too high up in the air for Chad to reach, so Pyrrha's plan was for Blake to help Chad aim so he could throw Pyrrha through the air so she could reach him.
"It's fine," she assured him. "He's too high up, so this is the only way we can hit him. It's a good plan."
"I guess I'll just take your word for it," Chad said. "Because this seems really stupid to me." Pyrrha looked at him with a hurt expression on her face. "Ok, I'm sorry."
"Anyway," Blake said, trying to get her two friends back on track. "Are you both ready?" They nodded. "OK. Yasu, I'll tell you where to aim, and you throw Pyrrha."
"Got it," he said. She grabbed the sides of his head and started moving it so he was looking dead straight at the Hollow.
"Should be right about here," she said quietly. "There! He's right there!"
"OK," Pyrrha said, getting into position. "Get ready to launch me, Chad. On my mark. Steady…"
"You can't reach me all the way up here with a telephone pole," The Hollow said from the sky, "so whatever you're planning is-"
"FIRE!" Pyrrha shouted, and Chad threw her with all his might, sending her flying straight at the Hollow.
"What?!" The Hollow yelled in exasperation. "Seriously, what the hell is wrong with these humans?!"
"You're through!" Pyrrha yelled.
"You're right," the Hollow said pathetically. "I was a fool to think I could defeat you. I surrender!" The two girls looked at him confused. "Kidding," he said, and one of the weird creatures from earlier appeared from out of the fur on the Hollow's shoulder. It opened its mouth, and large purple masses flew out of its mouth right at Pyrrha. However, Pyrrha's Huntress training meant that she still had fast reflexes, so she was able to slap most of them away, stunning the Hollow. One of the purple masses still clung to her arm, though, but that didn't do anything to change her trajectory. She quickly approached the Hollow, and threw a punch at it. She grabbed hold of the Hollow, and used its body as an anchor to flip herself so she could deliver an axe kick, sending it back down to the ground. However, she suddenly felt immense pain in her arm as the purple mass stuck to it exploded. She let out a yell of pain and fell out of the sky.
"Pyrrha!" Blake yelled.
"I got you!" Chad yelled, running towards her and diving to catch her. "That was a close one," he said. She was clutching her arm in pain. "What happened to you?"
"He stuck something to me and it exploded," she said to him through grit teeth.
"What did you do to her?" Blake demanded of the Hollow, who was just getting up off the ground.
"heh heh," he chuckled. "You like it? That was one of my leech bombs."
"Leech bombs?" Blake asked.
"Yes. Diabolical, isn't it?" If the Hollow's face could be seen behind his mask, the girls were certain he would be sneering at them. "They latch on, and when I produce a certain frequency with my tongue, they respond by detonating themselves." He started laughing maniacally again.
Chad stood up and walked towards him, a look of fierce determination on his face. He stopped right in front of the Hollow and stared him down.
"Oh, you want some more, eh, hot shot?" the Hollow asked. "Well first I have someone here you might want to see." The Hollow stepped aside, revealing Yuichi in his cage and Rukia. She had regained consciousness, and both she and Yuichi were covered in the little creatures that spawned the leeches.
"Rukia!" Pyrrha called.
"Yuichi!" Blake called. So that's where those things went, she thought. They were grabbing Yuichi and Rukia as hostages.
"I'm so sorry, mister," Yuichi said sadly.
"It's OK," Chad said.
"What did I miss?" Rukia asked. "What are these things?"
"Those things surrounding you spawn exploding leeches," Pyrrha informed her.
"What?" Rukia asked, going pale. The Hollow laughed.
"With leech bombs on the bird cage and the Soul Reaper, you'll do what I say. Because if they explode, there won't be enough of your friends left to spread on a cracker."
"Bastard," Blake spat.
"Now let's play a new game," The Hollow said. "Musclehead stays put while I play tag with the little ladies."
"Just do as he says," Rukia told them. "Don't think for a second that he won't blow us up."
"What did he say?" Chad asked.
"He wants you to stay still while he chases me and Pyrrha," Blake said. "We don't have any other choice."
"But what about you two?" he asked.
Pyrrha stood up, holding her arm. A fresh trail of blood was trickling down it. "We can take care of ourselves," Pyrrha said. "I made a promise to get you both out of here safe. We'll be fine."
"Good luck," Chad said.
"Thanks," the girls said. They turned around and were about to start running.
"Pyrrha!" Rukia called. "Catch!" Rukia threw her glove to Pyrrha, who caught it. She looked at it, gave Rukia a knowing nod, and put it in her blazer pocket. The girls then took off in a run away from Chad, Rukia and The Hollow. They had dozens of the leech spawners on their tail.
"I'm going to enjoy every second of this," the Hollow said before taking off after them.
Blake and Pyrrha were running down an alleyway as fast as their legs could carry them. There were leech spawners converging on either side of the girls. They spit a stream of leeches at them, and Pyrrha rolled to dodge. Blake chose to jump and landed on a nearby fence. However, there was another spawner waiting for her, and it spit several leeches at her, with a few landing on her head, arm, waist, and thigh.
Oh, no, she thought. The Hollow came right up behind her, his forked tongue sticking out.
"This might sting a little," the Hollow said, before resonating a sound and making the leeches explode, causing Blake to cry out in pain. She was leaning up against the fence for support, holding onto her arm, blood dripping onto the ground. Her black yukata had tears on the right sleeve, her right hip, and her right thigh.
"My, my," the Hollow said. "Don't you look pretty? All covered in your own blood. I think red becomes you, girlie. Let's see some more of it!" He grabbed one of the spawners and threw it at her. She braced to get hit by it, but Pyrrha kicked it away just in time.
"Come on!" Pyrrha yelled, pulling Blake along. The Hollow ran after them, cackling the whole way.
"Faster! Faster!" The Hollow yelled playfully. The spawners chasing them were now constantly spitting leeches at them, narrowly missing the girls. "How long before you get tired and blow up? Of course you could turn around and actually fight me! Put all that bluster about being able to take care of yourselves to the test!" The girls had come up to a waterway, and were forced to stop. "Aw, done already?" the Hollow asked, disappointment clear in his tone. He wanted to have a little more fun. The girls turned around, and saw two figures behind the Hollow. They were running towards it. "How boring. I didn't think you would give up so easily. Come on, run some more. I was having fun."
"We haven't given up," Pyrrha said. "There's just no need to run from you anymore."
"What are you blabbering about?" The Hollow asked, when all of a sudden he was struck in the back of the head by a blond girl. The punch sent him face-first into the pavement. The blond girl ran past him, and an orange-haired boy stepped on the back of his head, pinning him to the ground.
"BLAKE!" Yang yelled, running up to her injured partner. "Are you OK?"
"I am now," she said, clutching her wounded arm.
"What the hell, Pyrrha?" Ichigo asked. "Why is Blake more injured than you are? I thought you promised you wouldn't screw this up."
"Well, how was I supposed to know that he uses exploding leeches?"
"He uses WHAT?!" Yang asked, looking at Blake in concern.
"I'll be fine," Blake assured you. "It's nothing too serious."
"Where are Chad and Rukia?" Ichigo asked.
"They should be safe," Pyrrha answered. "The Hollow made them stay put while he chased us."
"That's good," Ichigo said, relieved.
"How touching," the Hollow said. "Do you plan to keep standing on my head all day?" He stood up, causing Ichigo to jump off his head and land next to the girls. "Who are you anyway? How the hell can so many humans see me?"
"Ichigo Kurosaki, substitute Soul Reaper."
"Yang Xiao Long, Huntress in training."
"A substitute Soul Reaper, eh?" the Hollow asked. "Crap. I screwed up." Pyrrha had pulled Rukia's glove out of her blazer pocket and put it on her hand. "When you split up back there, I should have gone after you!" The leech spawners spit what must have been hundreds of the leeches at them, with the Hollow resonating a sound with his tongue. Yang grabbed Blake and carried her away from the explosion, while Pyrrha hit Ichigo in the chest with Rukia's glove, causing Ichigo to transform. She then ran out of the way and Ichigo jumped into the air, the smoke of the explosion obscuring him from view.
"Where'd you go?" The Hollow asked. He reacted just in time as Ichigo descended, his Zanpakuto drawn. Ichigo delivered an overhead slash as he fell, only managing to graze the Hollow's arm as he defended himself, drawing a small amount of blood. The Hollow jumped and landed a few feet away, chuckling to himself. "You're too slow," The Hollow said. "But I can tell your soul is going to be—"
He was interrupted by a punch from Yang, sending him flying. He landed several feet away.
"What the hell?" He asked, exasperated. "I think she hits harder than musclehead."
"Don't forget about me!" She yelled, cracking her knuckles.
"Oh, why won't you people just die already?" The Hollow said, clearly growing incredibly frustrated. He summoned another group of leech spawners to his side.
"Now I got it," Ichigo said. "You used these leech bombs to tie up Chad and Rukia, then attacked the girls."
"What a coward," Yang glared at the Hollow. "You're gonna pay for hurting my friends!"
"The only price I'm going to pay is indigestion," the Hollow snickered, "once I'm finished eating all these tasty souls."
"Huh?" Chad was greeted to an odd sight. The leech spawners that were holding Rukia and Yuichi captive had simply run off eventually, likely returning to the Hollow to help him fight. Chad had run in the direction he saw Blake and Pyrrha run off in, holding Yuichi's bird cage, Rukia in tow. He had finally caught up with them. Pyrrha was leaning against a pole, still holding the wound on her arm from the exploding leech from earlier. Sitting on the ground leaning against a fence was Blake. She had blood on her face, arm, and leg, and her yukata was torn in several places, causing Chad to immediately blush. The weirdest part, though, was Ichigo. He was lying face-down next to them, completely unmoving. To be honest, he looked dead.
"Ichigo?" Chad asked. "Ichigo, what's wrong?" The sound of his voice got Blake's attention.
"Yasu! Rukia!" she called, relieved.
"Glad to see you're both OK," Pyrrha said.
"What's going on?" Chad asked. "What's with Ichigo?"
"Don't worry about him," Rukia said. "Ichigo is fine. He's fighting to protect us all."
Ichigo and Yang's fight with the Hollow had taken them a fair distance away from the others. The pair were just doing their best to dodge the leeches. They barely had any chances to attack him. It was time to change that. They turned around to face the leech spawners that had jumped towards them. Ichigo sliced three of them in half and Yang squashed two with her fists. The spawners spilled leeches where they fell, until there were a few small puddles of them. The Hollow chuckled again.
"Pretty good moves. But aren't you forgetting something? The leeches spilling from their guts are still live ammunition." He opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue, resonating his sound again. Suddenly, all of the leeches surrounding the duo exploded. Yang managed to roll away in time, and Ichigo jumped into the air, his Zanpakuto raised. He brought it down, but the Hollow moved its head out of the way, causing Ichigo's sword to be embedded in its shoulder.
"Tell me," Ichigo growled. "Before I slice and dice you, you killed the mother of that boy inside the cockatiel, didn't you? You might as well admit it. Because either way, you're going down."
"Is that true?" Blake asked. Evidently, Chad and the girls were having a similar conversation with Yuichi.
"I'm afraid it's all my fault," Yuichi said. "I just wanted to bring my mother back to life."
"Yuichi," Chad said sadly.
"I didn't mean for all those people to get hurt. If I'd known about that, I never would've done it. All I wanted was to see my mother again. I'm sorry."
"Wait," Rukia said. "So you really accepted such a lie? That if you did what he said, that he could bring your mother back to life? How could you believe that?"
"Because he wanted to believe it!" The Hollow said to Ichigo, who happened to have asked the Hollow the same question Rukia asked Yuichi.
"You bastard!" Ichigo and Yang said simultaneously.
"Yes. I killed the brat's mother when I was still alive. You might have heard about me. I was all over the T.V., the radio, everywhere. I was a famous serial killer. They never would've caught me, either. I was too smart. I'd still be out there hunting today, but as it turned out, the kid's mother was my last score.
"She was a sweet one. I stabbed her eight times, and she ran and ran, bleeding. And when she couldn't run anymore, she still tried to protect the kid. I really got off on it. But that's when everything went sour. I chased her onto the balcony and finished her off. Then that stupid kid grabbed my shoelaces. I lost my balance and went over the railing twenty stories down. Who'd have thought I'd get knocked off by a snot-nosed kid?
"Suddenly I was dead, I was pissed, and I wanted payback. The punk kid was still alive, so I sucked out his soul and stuck it in the stupid cockatiel. Then I made him a deal. I told him if he could run from me in that bird body for three months, I'd bring his precious mommy back to life."
"How could you do that?" Ichigo asked.
"I couldn't do that, you moron!" The Hollow snapped back. "Bring a dead person back to life? Nothing could have brought her back after what I did to her. I just said it to get the brat to play along. And it worked like a charm, too. He runs from me, and I get the thrill of the chase. Plus, there's the added pleasure of slaughtering everyone who tries to help him. And every time he squeals and begs me, 'don't hurt them'. And he wants to quit our little game. That's when I use my clincher. 'Mommy's waiting for you to save her'. What a laugh!" Ichigo's face contorted into a face of sheer rage. "But it always works and he's off running again. 'Mama, Mama'! Hahahahaha!" The Hollow grabbed Ichigo's sword, and pulled it off his shoulder. "But enough about me. Now it's time to kill you!" The Hollow jumped back and threw two leechs bombs at Ichigo. However Yang stepped in front of him and caught one of them. "You're defense is weak!" He stuck out his tongue to attempt to detonate the bomb Yang was holding, but she charged at him, punching through his mask with the bomb still in her hand. She had knocked the front teeth off his mask, and was holding the bomb inside the Hollow's mouth.
"YOU BASTARD!" Yang screamed. She looked at the Hollow right in the eyes, and that's when he saw it. Her eyes had changed color. Instead of their usual lilac, her eyes were now a bright crimson. "Not so tough when you can't use your bombs, huh?" she said with pure venom in her voice. The Hollow tried to say something, but it only came out as gurgled noises. "You use your tongue to make them explode, right? Then I'll just take it from you!" She grabbed hold of his tongue and ripped it right out of his face, causing him to scream in pain.
"My tongue!" He screamed, stunned from the intense pain. "You bitch!"
"Ichigo, now!" Yang yelled. Ichigo ran past her, and delivered a vicious slash to the Hollow's mask. A faint glow rose up from the slash, and the duo expected the usual sight of the Hollow's body disappearing into blue particles. Instead, the Hollow screamed, and a bright pillar of light exploded out from the Hollow's mask. Behind him, a giant gate appeared. It was a dark grey color, and each door had a large skeleton on it positioned so it looked like the skeletons were gripping the seams between the two doors. They were held closed with several chains. Ichigo and Yang took a step back in shock, and hadn't noticed that Rukia, Blake, and Pyrrha had caught up with them, their wounds healed thanks to Rukia's Kido. Chad wasn't with them, as he stayed with Yuichi.
"What the hell is that?" Ichigo asked, beginning to get scared.
"Don't worry," Rukia responded. "They're the Gates of Hell. But they're opening only for him." As she spoke, the gates slowly opened, breaking the chains, revealing a horrifying, evil red glow behind them. The teens could swear they heard screaming coming from the other side of the gate. "The Zanpakuto can only wash away sins a soul committed as a Hollow. Those who commit terrible crimes while they're still alive go to Hell." The gates were fully open now, their very presence rocking the teens to their cores. They could clearly hear the screams of the damned now, their cries mixing with the screams of the Hollow in front of them. The pressure was too much for Blake, who fell to her knees, the horror evident on her face.
"So that's Hell," Pyrrha said slowly, trying her best to stay standing. The Hollow continued screaming, only to stop as a giant hand suddenly reached through the gate and impaled him on a massive sword.
"Holy shit!" Yang exclaimed, and watched as the sword pulled the Hollow back through the gates to his ultimate fate. The gates slowly closed behind him. Once they were fully closed, the ground began to shake as cracks started forming on their surface. The cracks spread until they completely covered the surface of the gates, before shattering. The teens could only stare in shock and imagine the horrors that must lie behind that gate.
It was dusk the setting sun casting a yellow glow over everything. Rukia was crouched in front of the bird cage. Blake and Chad were standing off to the side. Ichigo, Yang, and Pyrrha were standing closer to Rukia, watching her work. She looked disappointed.
"What's wrong?" Ichigo asked.
"I'm afraid there's nothing I can do." Everybody's faces fell at this. "His Chain of Fate has been severed. There's no sign of it. Without it, there's no way I can return him to his body."
"Oh, no," Yuichi said sadly.
"Yuichi," Chad said. Blake just looked down at the ground.
"Don't be sad," Rukia said. "The Soul Society is a wonderful place that's very peaceful." Yuichi just continued to look down sadly. "You'll be happy there. You'll never be hungry, and you'll never grow old. In fact, it's a much better place to live than in this world."
"So now you're suddenly an expert on life in this world?" Ichigo asked.
"What?" Rukia asked, genuinely confused.
"Besides, that's not what he wants to hear," Yang said. Ichigo looked at Yuichi.
"When you pass over, you'll finally be reunited with your mother," Ichigo said. Yuichi's face instantly lit up. "Maybe we can't bring her back to life, but she is on the other side waiting for you. And this time, it really is true."
"Ichigo," Yang said, smiling at him. Yuichi turned to look at Chad and Blake.
"Mister Sado? Miss Belladonna?" Yuchi said. "Thank you for everything you did for me. You carried me everywhere in your arms and kept me safe. And you were even brave enough to face a terrible monster and protect me from it.
"Don't even mention it," Chad said.
"I'd do it again in a heartbeat," Blake said with a smile.
"I guess it's time for me to go now," Yuichi said. "I don't know what else to say now except 'thank you'. All of you."
"Yuichi?" Chad addressed him. "Someday, when I die and pass over too, would it be OK with you if sometimes I carried you around again?" Yuichi looked at him, and gave the brightest, warmest look Chad had ever seen him give, and simply nodded happily. Blake couldn't help but tear up. Everybody else looked at each other with satisfied smiles on their faces.
"Well then," Ichigo said, approaching Yuichi and drawing his Zanpakuto. "If you're ready, let's begin the Konso." He pressed the hilt of his sword against the bird cage, and the others watched as it was surrounded by a bright blue light, before a single black butterfly emerged and flew away.
AN: I hope you guys enjoyed the fight with Shrieker. Feedback for how I can make these fights more interesting is more than welcome.
Thank you guys again for reading. I really appreciate it.
If everything goes well, the next chapter should be going up on Friday, April 19.