Chloe flew after Rin as they headed towards where the explosion had occurred, landing before the Queen Bee, the soul reaper evaluated the scene before she leapt to the left and out of an oncoming attack. Chloe landed behind Rin, and looked up at the giant creature before them, it looked like a giant seashell but Rin quickly realized the danger and forced Chloe back up into the air, while she encased her own feet in ice.
Chloe looked to Rin in astonishment as she inquired, "What are you doing?"
"A hollow takes on the properties of animals or objects typically—this one is particularily dangerous if it lives up to its real life counterpart," Rin stated as she kept her eyes trained on the hollow. Slowly a snail head emerged from the shell, followed by a bit of the snail's neck, the hollow hole being revealed within its neck.
Chloe watched it from her position in the air and asked, "What kind of is it? Ugh it's gross!"
"It's a Cone snail, their poison is highly toxic. One drop will kill you in minutes," Rin answered as she leapt out of the way again. She noted that Chloe had flown out of the attack's path, and noted that the snail was spitting out a purple sludge from its mouth. She watched as the sludge ate away at the wall where it had connected.
"I don't want that sludge touching me either," Chloe noted.
Rin nodded as she quickly assessed the situation, there was one real chance to save Tomoya from the hollowfication but it would mean having to get close to him without falling victim to the sludge or the snail's poison.
A dart like object projected at Chloe from the snail's head.
"Watch it!"
The dart was met with the clank of steel blocking it, and Mamoru regarded the Snail hollow for a moment before pushing against the venom filled projectile.
'It figures that this hollow would use a poison based attack, Tomoya's Zanpakuto is one of the strongest poison types in soul society- in fact the coned snail makes perfect sense in every aspect,' Rin thought to herself as she watched the hollow aggressively press against Mamoru's Zanpakuto.
She charged at the hollow only for Ichika to beat her to the mark first. The red haired girl plunged her sword into the coned snail with her violet eyes over flowing with tears as she bellowed, "come back!"
A half second later the room was filled with a bright light as Ichika's spiritual pressure washed over the hollow, a black butterfly fluttered around nearby.
Chloe eyed it before swinging her Trompo at the butterfly, "Queen's Nectar!"
A splash of golden honey splattered on the Akuma pinning it to the wall.
"That was a risk," Rin observed.
"Couldn't let it akumatize someone else," Chloe pointed out.
"Very true," Mamoru agreed as he observed his cousin and Tomoya, noting that Ichika although having used her spiritual pressure to separate Tomoya from the Akuma, was holding him in her arms and sobbing.
Mamoru blinked, it wasn't like Ichika to cry. She was usually upbeat, loud, obnoxious, and devious, but crying? Crying just wasn't her.
Rin kept her distance as she watched the two.
Ladybug arrived a short moment later and looked around the room, "where's the Aku-" she stopped when she spotted the butterfly struggling to break free of the honey.
She smirked as she drew her yo-yo and went through her purifying sequence of catching the akuma in her butterfly net, and then releasing it from the yo-yo.
"I'm sorry," Tomoya whispered as he held Ichika in his arms.
"I'm so sorry. I was stupid," he repeated, clutching her closer to himself.
"I'm stupid too—I was hurt, yes, but you told me yourself. That does count for something," Ichika replied, wiping her tears with her hand.
"I need some time though," she added.
Tomoya nodded and agreed, "I think I can manage that. I just—whatever happens—we can be friends, right?"
Ichika gave a small laugh as she looked him in the eye, "You'd have to do worse to force me out of your life fully."
Tomoya gave her a relieved smile and hugged her tightly for a moment before letting her go.
"Well isn't this touching, but we're done with this little game you have going on," A voice behind them stated.
Rin emitted a low menacing growl from her throat as she spun and threw a shakkaho spell at the Peacock.